Captain Don Parker - RIP

[Hooper]

Originally Posted by big jay

Don will definately be missed.
He and my Dad were close friends and when my dad first started chartering he really went out of his way to help out.
When I started running trips on my own, Don would call me on the cell so as not to embarrass me on the radio, and check in on me and make sure that i was on fish and catching and see If I needed any help. Really looked out for me.

Great Captain and great guy, Billingsgate will be a little empty without him.

Jay, I know he and your dad were tight, he mentioned him often. I had to laugh when you wrote about calling you to make sure you were getting fish, he was that kind of guy.

Funny story, last year he a needed me to run the boat for him. A mutual friend was the mate, we are both mostly Nantucket Sound guys, but he didn't hold it against us. Anyways, we had a great bass trip, but we didn't get on the radio and call in the fleet to ruin our fishing.


When he met us at the dock and we unloaded all those bass he naturally asked how the rest of the fleet did. Well, we told him they didn't do so well and laughed to ourselves.

Capt. Parker went into a good natured rant about how us "southsiders" are nothing but a bunch of "lone wolves" who wouldn't call you to let you know if you boat was on fire.

I still laugh when I think about that.