Uncharted Water is a Family Affair
Written and photography by Connor Jenkins, Opal Moon Media
The thickness of the summer heat had nothing but our silence to stick to. Our bodies stood shoulder to shoulder, motionless. Eyes fixed, as if in a trance, on what lay before us, the sight reminiscent of a landscape setting out of an apocalyptic fantasy.
My father was first to walk to the waterline for a full visual survey of what was once the dockyard. The remains of boats ripped in half exposed, once beautiful interiors, now flooded with brackish water. Dock debris and fiberglass shards rested evenly across the water’s surface, ominously spread as if icing on a cake. On that day in 2004, I saw something that taught me one of the greatest lessons I have ever learned. It wasn’t about the powerful destructive force of the hurricanes or the ravished shipyard and docks. What I saw and recognized was in my family; an unwillingness to stop, a refusal to let the elements of nature dictate their drive for success, an uncomfortableness with giving up.
Ever since I was a child,I loved going into my father’s place of work. He had the street view corner office of Allied Marine and would bring me along some weekends. He sat dominant at a teak desk with old diver’s coins shellacked into the frame. Salesman of the year awards hung proudly around the brim of his office, while numerous photos of my two older brothers, me and our mother hung prominently at eye level.
As I sat and drew 2-dimensional outlines of sportfishing vessels, my father would simultaneously test the lean of his office chair and the decibels of his voice while jovially taking sales calls. When he was finished, he would lock up and we would head home to play pick-up basketball with my brothers, followed by dinner as a family. The yacht industry was different back then. He would sometimes be gone for weeks, sent overseas to countries, like Italy for introduction on the newly created vessels, or be put up in fancy hotels along with my mother, just for corporate meetings. My father even received a brand-new Mercedes one year for being the top yacht broker. From my perspective, everything changed in a flash. The economy crashed, the hurricanes hit, record lows across the country were being recorded, and something had to change.
My family, beginning in my father, found no solace in giving up. He could have ended his career in yacht sales right then, and no one would be able to blame him. Instead, my father looked for ways to reach more clients, to be more easily accessible than a phone call, and to provide for his wife and children. Together, he and our mother started a monthly newsletter, highlighting every listing and available vessel they could feature. While our father wrote the specifications and info for each yacht, it was my mother who became the powerhouse behind the feature. She spearheaded the design and editing, and wrote special articles monthly, offering a range of nautical related pieces to clients and owners, even monthly food recipes.
It was during this time my father spotted the trend in social platforms, like YouTube and Facebook, and saw the need to have more and more photos and videos of his listings. He encouraged me, his youngest, to pick up a camera and press record, thus launching me into what would become my full time career. My father passed on his knowledge, honest ethics and drive in the industry to the oldest of us boys and most adept at sales, my brother Brett, who has found much success in brokering luxury yachts.
To this day, you can find my father, Tom Jenkins, in the same street view corner office at Allied Marine of Stuart, confident that his wife, Melissa, is behind the desk at home writing up articles and reviews, and that Brett is somewhere to be found speaking to someone about some type of sale. You’ll find me hanging off the fly bridge or tucked away in the engine room, tweaking my body for the perfect shot while my wife captures lifestyle photography, or assists with the marketing and client relations of Opal Moon Media.
That leaves our middle brother, Sky. He’s not in the yachting industry like the rest of us, having been gifted with superior intellectual abilities, he is well on his way to becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Though, I have a feeling that in a few years, he might just receive a newsletter highlighting the best yacht deals of the month, thus changing my prior statement. Hopefully he’ll want some photos and videos.
39’ INVINCIBLE / Sean Fenniman
SEASALT Sailing / St. Pete
About Connor
Follow along on Connors creative journey by following him on social media.
@OpalMoonMedia