- October 9, 2024
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After 29 years in the United States Navy, Duane Thompson and his wife Shelly have settled into Palm Coast to retire doing what they love: boating and fishing.
“When the weather’s nice, we’re out there five days a week, depending on the time of year,” Shelly Thompson said.
Now, the Thompsons have turned their hobby into their business: Weigh Your Anchor Charters set sail in October, with its first charter on Nov. 4.
The couple did not come to Palm Coast with the idea of opening their own business, but to retire. Thompson retired from the Navy in 2004 as a lieutenant commander, and the Thompsons moved to Palm Coast in 2016.
“[Palm Coast is] just a good, all-around area for what our hobbies and interests were,” Thompson.
Every chance they get, Shelly Thompson said, they are on the water. In January 2023, the couple really began considering starting a charter business. By June, Thompson said, he had swapped out their bass boat — a boat generally designed for speed in shallower waters — for a bay boat — a bigger boat that seats eight for offshore trips.
Originally, he said, Weigh Your Anchor Charters was supposed to weigh anchor over the summer, but it was delayed because of paperwork involved in starting a new business.
Thompson has a Masters Captain license with the U.S. Coast Guard and uses a Sportsman Masters 227 bay boat. Shelly Thompson — who is just as fond of boating and almost as fond of fishing as her husband — handles the administrative side of the job and will act as a tour guide on some charters.
As a veteran-owned-and-operated business, Weigh Your Anchors offers a 20% discount to all active-duty military, veterans and first responders.
Their first charter on Nov. 4 was a fishing excursion for employees at American Scaffolding in Jacksonville, Thompson said.
“[November is] definitely not the weather that we were expecting to get started in,” Shelly Thompson said, laughing. “We were hoping for warmer, prettier weather to actually get kicked off in the business with.”
Fishing trips are just one of five different tours that Weigh Your Anchors offers. The charter business also offers trips out to the sand bars, an eco tour that shows off historic sites and local wildlife, a combination tour that combines the historic forts, wildlife and scenery and a sunset tour — a two-hour cruise along the intracoastal waterway to watch the sun set.
“There's a little concern that when you make your passion, your job, you know, how does that impact your passion?” he said. “I don't think that it will ever come to that. … But that’s why we want to do tours, too. It’s not just fishing.”
