How to Avoid Huge Ships by John W. Trimmer

We then sailed together at different college regattas and other national regattas around the country. “Junior sailing is one of the causes that is near and dear to my heart.” Nate says “The community is really tight knit some of my best friends I met junior sailing as a teenager. (The photos of him in diapers and her in John Denver glasses are in a vault somewhere.) Sailboat racing and junior sailing have taken Nate all over, from Key West to Baltimore, Annapolis to Newport, Newport to Bermuda, Boston to Halifax, San Diego to Ensenada, Chicago to Mackinaw, Port Huron to Mackinaw and around the Great Lakes. Nate’s babysitter who he calls his big sister, 1986 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Heidi Backus Riddle, taught Nate how to sail at four-years-old. “Today when we see folks tubing on the Amelia River or in the Cumberland Sound, we call that, high-speed chumming” Nate says. He tells of how the engines weren’t powerful enough to ski behind, so he and friends would make water sleds, from wood, that they would tow at top speed around the lake.

Long before personal water craft and wake boards, Nate was only allowed to use the family’s rental 14’ aluminum boats with 7.5 HP Evinrude outboards, when he could carry and mount the huge two-stroke engines. He would count out, thousands of worms and minnows, for sale to fisherman at his parent’s bait shop on the river. His day started by putting on shorts, a life jacket and heading out the door to work or play on sailboats or power boats, large and small.

“I joke that I grew up with Champagne tastes on a beer budget” Nate says. As the family grew, nearly everyone worked on the water in some way. Solomon Parsons, (Nate’s 5x great-grandfather) and family moved to the area in 1811, from Roxbury, NY and started the boat building industry there in 1814. Nate is the son of a son of many sailors, captains, boat builders and fisherman. The town in Ohio, was known as “the village of captains,” between Cleveland and Sandusky. Is captain Nate Parsons, born and raised in his family’s marina, on the South shore of Lake Erie. The symphony of nature is in full force from the shores of the Amelia River.” ~ Nate Parsons Amelia River Cruises’ Newest Member – Captain Nate Parsons Whether it is seeing Loggerhead turtles feeding on horseshoe-crabs, the sheer joy in family interactions of pods of dolphin, the kaleidoscope of colors and variety of all the different waterfowl and raptors, the ebb and flow of massive tides, four times a day. “The beauty and power of the Cumberland Sound constantly amazes me. Amelia River Cruises’ Newest Member – Captain Nate Parsons November 6, 2018

How to Avoid Huge Ships by John W. Trimmer