Cap'n Billy: An Alabama Odyssey

By W.D. Smart

Neal Burgess, a semi-retired, middle-aged computer analyst from California, had just cashed in from a start-up company he helped bring to life. He bought the sailboat of his dreams and was enjoying his new live-a-board lifestyle in a small marina in southern Alabama intending to just kick back, relax, do some writing and focus on his zen practice. Life there was idyllic and blissfully uneventful until the day he met Cap'n Billy, a prototypical, down home good ol' boy who operated a small shrimping trawler along the inland waterways that lined the Gulf. Before he knew it he was spending almost every night shrimping with Cap'n Billy, literally learning the ropes as he went, and enjoying the never-ending yarns Cap'n Billy spun as they trawled.However, all was not well in paradise. Cap'n Billy's boat was in sore need of some basic maintenance and major repairs, and his license was under threat from the marine police. On top of that, the sleepy little marina where Neal lived on his boat suddenly rose up in arms to challenge the rejection of a seemingly trivial building permit which was denied on the grounds it threatened the mysterious Perdido Key Beach mouse with imminent extinction. Cap'n Billy is presented in a lively, colorful, first-person narrative which weaves seemingly disparate but curiously related threads from Southern culture, single-handed shrimping, predictive data analysis, zen practice, and conservationism to create a rich and engaging tapestry depicting life on the southern U.S. Gulf coast.You may leave comments, ask questions or join in discussions about CAP'N BILLY at: Facebook: https: //www.facebook.com/novelcapnbillyEmail: CapnBilly@BillSmart.com

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1500720909
• ISBN13: 9781500720902
• Release Date: August 2014
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Save the turtles!

If you've ever been shrimping in a beat-up old sailboat with a skipper that is equally as ancient, then you'll truly enjoy "CAP'N Billy." Old salts, liars and drinkers come to a marina to fuss over any crisis in the brewing. If you're the captain of a ship, you know characters like those at the marina. Small things can present major obstacles for closed minds. The loudest ones are not always the wisest. Leadership of what appears to be a dead-end project gets foisted upon one of them. Wisdom was in the wind for the owner of the posh sailboat at the dock. He sought out "Miss Tiffany" and Captain Billy for nighttime adventures of shrimping in the Bay. With CB at the helm and the wise one helping to set the net, hauls were sure to come. For them, reason and logic prevailed. Orders were filled. But more winds and waves were on the horizon for Billy.