All Aboard the R/V Spartina
Visitors to the office on Sapelo Island will notice a small model of a white boat, built for trawling, with vivid blue trim and rigging. Few will know that this replica, an imitation of the Research Vessel Spartina, was lovingly constructed by one of Spartina’s captains — a man with a bright smile and ruddy cheeks named Randall, who insists his creation is only because he had the spare time.
Watching Randall sail with Spartina’s official captain, Trip, makes clear that spare time is not the only inspiration for the men’s participation in a job they perform so well. They cooperate seamlessly. Working in concert, Trip begins to pull up the trawler net using a simple pulley mechanism on the back deck while Randall, at the helm, guides the boat in large circles to counteract the net’s drag. Amid an interview full of laughter, the captains switch from conversation to sailing lingo with the quick communication of professionals who have worked together for a long time, although it has only been a year.
In fact, for Trip, the timeline stretches much farther. The coastal tides and marine wildlife of this barrier island run in his blood. Clean cut with a baseball cap and topsider shoes, this Georgia Power employee and research vessel captain quickly asserted how he grew up shrimp fishing locally: his grandfather was assistant director at Sapelo Island in years past, and even gave the Spartina her sea-worthy name.
Before it was the name of a research vessel, Spartina referred only to the smooth cord grass that grows abundantly throughout the island. After several days tromping through salt marshes to study plants like spartina and the cactus-like succulent Batus maritima, our group had graduated to the next level of exploration. Today, we took to the sea. The captains served as tour guides for the underwater ecosystem, and the voyage revealed just how delicately balanced marine life can be.
Captains Trip and Randall share a mutual devotion to conservation work on Sapelo Island. As both the captains well know, preservation dictates that shrimping (outside of research) is prohibited on Sapelo Island. When it comes to recreational fishing outside of the island’s preserves, though, Randall modestly claims, “I don’t know nothin’ about shrimp. But I can eat ‘em!”
Before docking — an impressive feat accomplished in only three words between the captains — Randall shared how beautiful the waters were on his recent Bahama cruise with his wife. Compared to the island’s murky depths (teeming with flounder, sea trout, shrimp, skates, and the occasional eel), the clarity of the tranquil waters of the Bahamas felt extra luxurious. “I love that water” Randall says, “but it’s this mud that gives me a job.”
