Blue on the bayou: First-time boat buyer Zed Blue learns just how hard things can get — before they get worse

摘要

Early last fall the future was nothing but positive for Zed Blue. A deckhand on West Coast and Alaska fishing boats since he was 14, the 31-year-old was flying to Bayou La Batre, Ala., to buy his first boat. Blue remembers the time when the idea of owning a boat turned from an idle daydream to a self-made deadline. "I was 30 and it just hit me — I need my own boat." However, the price tags on new fishing boats being what they are, the transition from deck to the wheelhouse meant Blue's first boat would be used.