Salty Podcast: Sailing

Salty Podcast #30 | ⛵ Sailing Through Time: Bear Point Marina's Rich History ⛵🏖️

• Captain Tinsley | Bear Point Marina | Craig Reaves | Marcus Kurk • Season 1 • Episode 30

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Join me for a special combined episode of The Salty Podcast and Gettin' Beachy Podcast! I delve into the fascinating history and exciting updates of Bear Point Marina in Orange Beach, AL.   Hear Marcus Kruk's historical stories about growing up in the marina and learn about modern improvements from current owner Craig Reaves.  Video Podcast Link: https://tinyurl.com/SaltyPodcast30

#SailingLife #MarinaStories #BeachLifestyle #OrangeBeachAL #podcastinterview 

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SALTY ABANDON: Cap'n Tinsley, Orange Beach, AL:
Oct 2020 to Present - 1998 Island Packet 320;
Nov 2015-Oct 2020; 1988 Island Packet 27
Feb-Oct 2015 - 1982 Catalina 25

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Tinsley Myrick:

Good evening everybody. This is Tinsley Myrick and this is a combined, special combined episode of the Salty Podcast and the Gettin' Beachy Podcast. I'm going to put this up here and read a little introduction. I felt it fitting to combine this topic because this will pertain to both sailors, boaters, as well as Orange Beach Gulf Shores area and real estate enthusiasts. Tonight, we're diving into the fascinating history and exciting future of Bear Point Marina, now known as Bear Point Harbor, in Orange Beach, alabama. We'll explore the marina's rich past and its journey through various improvements and upgrades. We'll discuss the remarkable recovery from Hurricane Sally in September 2020. The conversation will blend historical insights along with modern advancements. It's perfect for both sailing enthusiasts and real estate investors. Now let's meet our guest, who will share their unique perspectives and experiences Marcus Kruk, giving us the historical perspective, and Craig Reeves, the current owner, giving us present and future. Without further ado, we are now. Thank you very much, guys.

Marcus Kruk:

Marcus and Craig, how are you tonight Good, thank you, thank you.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah, great. So, marcus, okay, I'm so excited to talk to you. I'm excited to talk to both of you, but let's start with you. So your dad bought Bear Point Marina 1968. Now, I think, from my calculations, you were four.

Marcus Kruk:

Yes, right, yes.

Tinsley Myrick:

I can't ask you what you remember of that day, probably, but why don't you tell us what you heard about when your dad bought the marina in?

Marcus Kruk:

1968? Yeah, so to give you a little background, my dad was a Navy helicopter pilot and I was actually born in Tom's River, New Jersey, near Lakehurst Naval Air Station. And dad was got out of Vietnam, got stationed at NAS in Pensacola and he was on a hop somewhere and he had the copy of the Wall Street Journal and he saw Bear Point Marina for sale in that journal and as soon as he landed he made the calls and set up the meeting and actually wound up purchasing the marina. My mother, my grandmother, had to mortgage her house to get them the money to which I think was $120,000 when he bought the marina and he bought it and of course he was stationed at NAS.

Marcus Kruk:

My mother was a dental hygienist, so of course we we came down and moved into the Marina. We moved in upstairs where the bar is now. There was an apartment up there and, like we were talking a while ago, we were up there for about four or five years before we moved into a different house behind I say behind the Marina, actually behind the parking lot back there. Stay there for a year year, and then we built a house, um gosh, down over on washington boulevard.

Craig Reaves:

But uh, yeah, it was, it was a dream come true.

Marcus Kruk:

It was, uh, you know, coming. Coming here is a little boy. I do remember it. I remember I was so scared I would fall through the cracks can I just ask you a question?

Tinsley Myrick:

I've got, I've got the uh, the picture that you sent me from 1968 that your dad took from the helicopter, this house right here. I don't know if you can see it. Is this the house that you lived in, this up here?

Marcus Kruk:

No, well, we lived in the top of the marina, so upstairs, downstairs was the lounge, you know the crooked. They had the crack in the floor, it was all. The floor was crooked and upstairs was a. It was three bedrooms, little little small bedrooms, a kitchen and a little living room, and that's that's where we lived upstairs for many years, yeah, and dad was still in the Navy in the beginning and my mother was a.

Marcus Kruk:

She was a dental hygienist, she worked in Foley, so they both worked 24 seven. You know people. When I tell them I grew up in a Marina, I think all that had to be fun. It was just like being on a farm. I mean, we never stopped working. You know storms are coming, you had to get out and check the boats and I was the gas pump boy for forever.

Tinsley Myrick:

But yeah, there was fuel. There was fuel back then.

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah, sure, sure was, yeah, and of course you know the Bear Point Pier. There there was a connection from the marina to the pier and it was just traffic back and forth. People were coming up to the marina to get Cokes and snacks and we sold Stewart sandwiches. I don't know if anybody remembers that, but it was like a, a little, little oven. You'd pop in this little sandwich and it was in a little plastic bag and, uh, but we had the pickled eggs and uh, of course we had cold beer.

Marcus Kruk:

You know, we had pool tables, uh and uh, we, my dad, found these old ship, uh, ship stores. They were, uh, looks like, of course we call it epoxy now, but it was resin, but it was like an old door off a ship and we had all those in there. Uh, and it was a. It was a neat atmosphere. My mom, she loved to decorate, she, uh, she did some stuff on the outside and, uh, we had rattan, uh, wicker, uh, rugs all over the floor and it was, it was a neat place. We had a jukebox and all night you know when dad's back there tending bar after he's been, you know, at the navy base, all day um, I always sat on top of the jukebox and uh, and I'd get in trouble a lot of times because I'd be, you know, rapping to the music. You know, of course, all you know 70s music, which is still on my heart probably from that, but uh, just a, just an incredible place to grow up.

Tinsley Myrick:

Well, what did you think about New Jersey to Orange Beach Alabama.

Marcus Kruk:

Well, you know, my memories of New Jersey are really faint.

Marcus Kruk:

I don't really remember much at all you know, because we were living with my grandparents when dad was in Vietnam and of course he made that, you know he got stationed, he came home for a little bit and then got stationed right down to pensacola and then acquired the marina very, very soon thereafter. So and he was, I think he had another year or so left in the navy and then of course he got out at that point. So and then and then, and then, at that point he opened up the, uh, the boat sales uh, which was in I think 74. Uh, he opened the boat sale showroom which is now where the parking lot is, uh across the street, and we we had, uh, believe this or not, we were number I think three or four in the nation uh on mercury, uh, mercury motor outboard sales down there in little bear point alabama I want to.

Tinsley Myrick:

okay, so if you can see my cursor, like this part right here, I just find fascinating. There's nothing there like there is now, so I'm going to show you a picture of it now from Google. Oh, wow, yeah, so it was just this part, and it wasn't even like there weren't that many boats in here and there weren't that many big boats in there at all. But all this I don't know when it was added. Maybe Craig knows, but that's an amazing difference. And then here's a picture that Craig sent.

Marcus Kruk:

Oh, this is Craig's picture.

Tinsley Myrick:

Because I can see Craig's boat right there. So I know this is a recent picture.

Marcus Kruk:

We did have some. We had 10 sheds. The boat sheds covered slips. We did have some big boats because me and my buddies we'd camp out and then we'd always sneak into the boats at night. So you know something fun and mischievous to do as a youngster.

Tinsley Myrick:

What were you doing on the boats at night?

Marcus Kruk:

We were looking for alcohol. That's when I was, like you know, eight or nine, so you know.

Tinsley Myrick:

Oh yeah, I did things like that, yeah, so, craig, what do you think about that price?

Craig Reaves:

We yeah. So, craig, what do you think about that price? We did a little bit worse than that, I'm afraid $120,000.

Tinsley Myrick:

You know, I'm a real estate agent and I can look back at the records that we have that we pay for in our dues and everything and it only goes back to $95, 95. And I couldn't find anything. I did find one thing online. I did a chat GPT and it said it was built in 52. And I tried the city of Orange Beach and they said that supersedes the city of Orange Beach, which was in 84. So I tried Baldwin County and they said you need to contact, help me out here US Corps of Engineers and look for the dredging permit date.

Craig Reaves:

I don't have it. The dredging didn't happen until, probably until the 68th edition, when they cut the basin in or somewhere in there. But I've seen a picture from probably 1920s of a Bear Point Marina sign with a wooden gate, I mean like it's been here, for there's been a marina here for a long time. I don't think it was in present form, but of course. But yeah, I wonder if it was there?

Tinsley Myrick:

I wonder if it was there I wonder if it was.

Craig Reaves:

Yeah, it was the same same place, but it the, the, uh, the, the basin that we have cut in the l-shaped part that comes in from the, from the bay now for monica bay. Um, it probably ended, it probably began some, some in some form from there, but but I've never seen, you know, I've never seen that.

Tinsley Myrick:

But yeah, interesting Huh, so you think that I wonder when the permits? All that's all that you know, having to have a permit to dredge, and all that. I don't know when that started.

Marcus Kruk:

You know if that's in the 60s before, I would imagine that they didn't have a permit you know, back, then they probably just dug it out, you know it's like yeah. You know, there's a few other marinas, you know, around that. We had, you know, sportsman's Marina, which was interesting. I had one of my best buddies today, you know, we were the same age and his parents were running Sportsman's Marina and then the Peters, they had the Orange Beach Marina and we'd, all you know, ride the bus together. You know the bus would come.

Tinsley Myrick:

I found a date for that one 1978,.

Tinsley Myrick:

I believe Orange Beach, marina. Okay, yeah, yeah, but I did not realize sportsmen had been there that long. Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah it. It was, of course, totally different, obviously, but uh, and they did the same thing. There was a, there was a house that they, in the marina, you know, they sold fuel, they sold, uh, snacks and stuff like that. I don't know if they had a bar or a lounge, like we did, a gulf gate had the lounge, which was real.

Tinsley Myrick:

I remember gulf gate yeah, yeah, that was the Sunday happening spot. You know, with Kenny Stabler and all his buddies back in the day, gulfgate was always going crazy. You'd see the Canal Road just lined up with cars. You know, back in the 70s with Gulfgate just going crazy.

Craig Reaves:

I was here the night that it burned in the 90s what's that? I was here the night that it burned in the 90s. What's that? I was here the night that it burned in the 90s. Oh, really yeah.

Tinsley Myrick:

Oh, I forgot about that. I've been here since 1990, but yeah, I think I remember something about that. So, craig, let's switch over to you. We're not done with you, marcus. So you came down here looking for a trailer park to buy. I did. You ended up with marina yeah, my son.

Craig Reaves:

My son had just gotten in the commercial real estate business and uh, he called me one morning. He said I found your trailer park. He said, but it floats. And uh, he was not wrong.

Tinsley Myrick:

It's the same thing, the same principle, for sure but it started in 2013 your search, and you actually ended up buying the marina in 2016, right?

Craig Reaves:

that's right.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah, that's about right, so yeah, I have a story to tell her about that. I came in to get some some fuel at the dock and I was like, well, who's this guy? And I thought, well, maybe he worked there. And you said, no, I'm the new owner. I was like, oh, and you were very humble, you weren't insulted or anything, but you were there to help me with my fuel and I was I I had my boat.

Tinsley Myrick:

I was staying at bear point marina at the time and um, and I didn't even know it was for sale. The guy before Ken, what was?

Craig Reaves:

his name Nettles yeah.

Tinsley Myrick:

Did he have it for a year or less than a year?

Craig Reaves:

A little over a year, I mean like 14 months or something like that. So just and Robin Wade had it for many years before that and I'm not sure I think he's the one that did the renovations in 99 and that kind of thing, the major money that was spent in there. But yeah, I started out not knowing marina business at all, other than being a boater all my life, so it was an education. The learning curve was pretty steep, I can tell you curve was pretty steep, I can tell you.

Tinsley Myrick:

But yeah, tell about the uh experience when you bought it and what you were expecting when the day you showed up and what actually happened. That's a good story well.

Craig Reaves:

So we, we went to closing on friday, uh, friday morning about 11 o'clock and, um the uh, the previous owner handed me a really just a bag of keys and I mean like a Ziploc bag full of stuff, and that was about it. I said were we going to meet at the marina? I had some understanding that we didn't really write down exactly what we were going to do and I really didn't know what to ask. I made a lot of assumptions, probably, but anyway, I said were we going to do? And I really didn't know what to ask. I just made a lot of assumptions, probably, but anyway, I said are we going to meet down this afternoon? He said, oh yeah, we're going to go get some lunch and then I'll see you this afternoon.

Craig Reaves:

And so my son and I went after closing got some lunch in Fairhope which is where closing was and so meandered down here and got to the marina and there was nobody. It was a ghost town. There was. All the lights were off, there was a sign on the door that said closed for inventory, and I was like this isn't good. And so I run into some guy in the parking lot who turned out to be a liveaboard guy down here. That just kind of.

Craig Reaves:

Who was that John John? I can't remember his last name, but anyway I remember.

Tinsley Myrick:

John, yeah.

Craig Reaves:

But anyway. So that's the first person I ran into. I said you seen the previous owner and he goes, or seen Ken and he goes. You probably won't see him. I'm like, what do you mean? He said, well, he's already come and gone.

Marcus Kruk:

Oh, I lost your.

Craig Reaves:

How in the world does that?

Marcus Kruk:

work.

Tinsley Myrick:

So John knew that it was.

Craig Reaves:

I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, he did. He was one of the few. It was not on the market for long. It came up like on a Friday morning. We had it under contract on Monday, so it was quick and so it was. And it was never really officially hit the MLS anyway, because there was a kind of a preemptive like just an email blast to all the agents in Baldwin County and my son was on that list and so that's how he knew about it. I missed it, yeah.

Tinsley Myrick:

It was quick.

Craig Reaves:

I mean, we had it nailed down pretty quick yeah.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah.

Craig Reaves:

But yeah, so I did that, but anyway. So I walked in or I go to the door. The door's locked, the sign on the door says closed for inventory. All the lights were off. I mean, I was there two days before that and they had a cute little perky blonde behind the counter. There was a dock hand and lights were on and they were selling beer, they were doing all their stuff and you know, everything looked great. I'm like I'm going to be here Friday after closing. I'll introduce myself. We'll, you know, we'll, we'll roll on, you know, and pick these people up and it was supposed to be kind of a handoff.

Craig Reaves:

I'll let me show you how things work and all that they were supposed to be. It turned out that, uh, it turned out that the cute little perky blonde was the? Um son's girlfriend who was the dockhand, and I didn't know that either. And uh, anyway, there was a lady that I'd never seen before behind the counter and she told me who she was. She was paid out for the rest of the day. She used to work in the store and help run the marina. She'd been there for several years, but I'd never seen her before.

Tinsley Myrick:

And she quit shortly after.

Craig Reaves:

Ken got it. She quit. Yeah, I was like where's Sher it? Yeah, she didn't. I was like where's Sherry?

Tinsley Myrick:

Oh, she didn't like the new situation, and so she left.

Craig Reaves:

That's exactly right.

Tinsley Myrick:

She popped up. I guess Ken said hey, can you come help the new owner?

Craig Reaves:

That's exactly right. Well, he didn't even do that. All he wanted to do was get her to close his books out, so he could close and leave. And so that's what he did, and he anyway. So she was paid till 5 o'clock. This was about 3.30. And I said, well, how would you feel about working here for a while? And we had this mutual job interview.

Tinsley Myrick:

That was the right person, Marcus. That was the right person to be there. She knew, she didn't know she was actually.

Craig Reaves:

She knew where all the skeletons were. She knew how everything worked. We were out of fuel. She knew who to call. I mean we had. We had more stuff like that. I had no idea. I thought I was going to have some on the job training from this guy, but I didn't see for another two months by the way. And we were out of fuel.

Tinsley Myrick:

He was hit, for the hills he was man, he'd had enough.

Craig Reaves:

And so, yeah, we called, and I called Davidson Fuel no account set up, no, nothing, no credit card number, no, nothing and said, hey, we are out of fuel, I need to get tomorrow's Saturday. We need to. We can't be out of fuel. I need to get tomorrow's Saturday, and you know we need to, we can't be out of gas. Right, and they sent us 10,000, or you know, 8,000 gallons of. They sent us 8,000 gallons of fuel with nothing, and and and got us out of the hole. We did it all in a week. Oh my God, yeah, but yeah, exactly, I mean, I'm like you know so anyway, so so needless to say they're still our fuel supplier and

Tinsley Myrick:

will be there you go. Yeah, you made it happen. You and god was shining, was looking down on you when he sent sherry up there because I haven't seen her in a long time. I was glad she came back.

Craig Reaves:

I was so happy she was gone for a year, and or more, and, and um a little over a year, and so no, but she was the right person, it was absolutely a God thing. And she agreed to work for two years and she's still here and has been eight. Oh wow, that's awesome. So she really is an unbelievable work ethic, unbelievable person.

Tinsley Myrick:

She runs a tight ship.

Craig Reaves:

She does, which makes up for me because I don't I need management. So anyway, she's been super. The community has been fantastic. It's all been an amazing experience, given where I started and not knowing more than I did, so I've been very blessed for sure.

Tinsley Myrick:

That's awesome, that's awesome, that's awesome. You worked in demolition and waste management.

Craig Reaves:

Yeah, we had a landfill, a roll-off container company, that kind of thing, building, demolition, environmental contracting, that kind of thing.

Tinsley Myrick:

Well, that kind of seems like you'd be ready for anything.

Craig Reaves:

Well, it has been. I mean, the experience I've had with the electrical stuff and just the construction background that I've had has kind of led to me I kind of keep the wheels glued on, I guess down here. There you go. So that's worked, it's been good.

Tinsley Myrick:

All right, let's go back to old, old, uh, old old.

Marcus Kruk:

You know, I didn't mean that, marcus hey, I just turned 60, so watch out, I am right behind you.

Tinsley Myrick:

So let's just look at um. I want to show some of these historic. Now tell me what's going on in this picture. This is really cool. Uh, so this is the building you lived in, is that right?

Marcus Kruk:

See the two windows and then the motor, the outboard motors to the right, which was just a plastic motor that you know, mercury.

Tinsley Myrick:

Oh, I see it right there.

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah, but those two windows where that was the living room and then directly behind that was the kitchen, which looked out of the other side of the marina, out on the road, and to the left was my bedroom and then to the right was a little guest room and then my mom and dad's room.

Tinsley Myrick:

And in the staircase. Well, is any part of this still here? Craig and Marcus.

Marcus Kruk:

You know, I don't know, but I do know that when I walk into that space, it, the, the, the space feels the same. You know, the, the size, the, the feel, um, you know, of course, whenever we would go up upstairs, we would we wouldn't enter upstairs the way it is now. We would go, um, I guess, where the kitchen is, that's where we would go upstairs to get upstairs, yeah, uh, and then there was a side door that would go outside. And then outside to the right, we actually raised pigeons, so we had a big pigeon coop out there, but yeah, and of course then the piers right down below it.

Tinsley Myrick:

Well, back in 2000,. I haven't told Craigig this, um, I had, I, I got married, and so my shower, my bridal, it was 2000. My bridal shower was in the upstairs room at the restaurant. So is that where you lived? Yes, well, oh, my god.

Marcus Kruk:

Well, the bar that's up there now that where you lived, yes, oh my God. Well, the bar that's up there now that, I guess would have been.

Tinsley Myrick:

I haven't been up there in years so I don't know, what's up there now, Craig? Am I right that?

Marcus Kruk:

looks completely different up there. The downstairs is similar in design, but the upstairs was completely. Definitely some modifications.

Tinsley Myrick:

It was an apartment.

Craig Reaves:

Yes.

Marcus Kruk:

It was a house. Yeah, the ceilings were taller, ceilings were real low, um, I remember that, um, but uh, and of course you know we didn't have, I think, when we got there. I don't think we had air conditioning for a while, so we had the windows open and I tell you you want to go to sleep like.

Marcus Kruk:

just listen to those barges going up and down the bay at night would just put me right to sleep. That is still one of my favorite sounds ever to hear a tugboat at night, and it's just so soothing.

Tinsley Myrick:

So do you recognize these boats here?

Marcus Kruk:

No, I don't, I don't Not then, because that was that was that we were there for a little while, I guess because we had we, I think when we first got there we did not have the Mercury dealership, so that was probably, you know, 70, maybe 69, 70, probably in that shot. And then this is a shot of across the street. We had a big metal showroom.

Tinsley Myrick:

This is you, this is him. Right here, craig, across the street, we had a big metal showroom.

Marcus Kruk:

This is him. This is him right here. Craig, that's, this is me.

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah, my mom, my dad, my sister and we carried uh, we carried gosh 27 different brands. We had mako aquasport. Uh, we had, uh, the ski nautique. Uh, we had checkmate hydrostream. Those were go fast boats and a lot of people came to us because we had some really good boat riggers and we would rig up a go fast. So you take a hydro stream with a course Nowadays the motors are huge, but you know, put a 150 on a little, you know 14, 15 foot hydro stream and had the hot foot and the jack plates, and so it was. It was kind of a thing we were known for back in the day, which, of course, kenny St his crew would come down here.

Marcus Kruk:

That brought us a lot of publicity and a lot of his friends and other people would come down and then we also had the indian motorcycle uh franchise I was going to say those yeah yeah wow, those are dirt bikes.

Marcus Kruk:

Uh, so you know, you know indian as a as a street bike, but I at some point they might have gotten acquired by amf or or somebody else at that time, but they did have the dirt bikes and of course all the roads down there were all dirt. You know all. You know just, uh, red clay roads and I had the indian 50 and indian 80.

Marcus Kruk:

You said it was it was a lot of fun, uh, and it was, matter of fact, hard becoming an adult after that, but, but, but it was a lot of work. I, I, you know I always that was my first boat, um, and me and my buddies would get in that thing and and I'd get in trouble all the time because we would be in the middle of the, the boat basin paddling around and and the boats are trying to navigate around us and uh, um, but yeah, that was, that was just a, uh, an old wooden boat. Dad, I don't know, maybe he acquired it with the Marine and it it wound up being my, my first boat.

Tinsley Myrick:

But uh, you didn't have. You didn't have an engine.

Marcus Kruk:

No, no, just the paddles. You see my two apps, tommy and George Whittle. They're, they're my, they're my motor. And then, uh, corky is the guy on the back, and I cannot believe I remember their names. When I found this picture the other day, it just come flooding back to me and, uh, but no, that was, that was paddle. Paddle power or we throw the anchor paddle power and then, and then pull it.

Marcus Kruk:

You know, throw the anchor, pull it. You know that that was another way to get her get around, but so, craig, this is where your boat is now.

Tinsley Myrick:

Isn't that incredible how different that looks yeah, it is, it is.

Craig Reaves:

It really is crazy.

Tinsley Myrick:

And my boat's right over here somewhere and look, here's the, here's the, the bear point. I guess that uh that launch was there.

Marcus Kruk:

Boat launch. Well, I don't. I know we had a boat launch in the Marina as well, and uh, yeah that was, that was one of my jobs.

Marcus Kruk:

It was, uh was. We had a sign up, you know, a dollar fifty to launch, and if I wanted to make extra money I would just go down there and collect and I would keep the 50 cents that was, that was part of mine and my dad's deal. So there's a lot of people, wouldn't you know? They wouldn't put any money in the box, but but I know I know you were standing there.

Tinsley Myrick:

They had to, yeah, they had to. They're standing there.

Marcus Kruk:

They had to, yeah, they had to, and of course, they want me to help them.

Tinsley Myrick:

I'm going, oh, I'm just here to collect the money, so it was part of your property, craig yeah, so did somebody sold it?

Marcus Kruk:

I'm not sure what it was within the basin.

Craig Reaves:

Yeah, I'm not sure at what point that became. I think initially it was part of the marina property.

Marcus Kruk:

It got deeded to the bpca at some point. I think, um, am I right about that, marcus or gosh? You know we back then. You know, being younger, I always just assumed it was all of ours. You know even that. You know the the piece across. You know the basin where all the sand is over there. Right, I never knew it wasn't ours, but I think a sliver of it was. But uh, but, uh, yeah yeah, but uh look at that okay isn't it something?

Marcus Kruk:

my mom had to wear that ski vest, so that little ski uh ski thing keep me from drowning. But I I took it off as soon as she turned her back.

Tinsley Myrick:

So yeah, you know, I don't see it on you there.

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah.

Tinsley Myrick:

You were a cute little fella, by the way. This is your grand. Check this out. Motorcycle helmets Regularly $31.95 Grand opening special $15.99 $15.99.

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah, we sold those ski barges, which were neat boats, uh, of course, the motorcycles. We had, uh, sunfish, we had uh hobie cat, um, so I learned to sail, you know, as a youngster. I I still today I don't know any nautical sailing terminology, but I can take a catamaran and and fly the hall all the way across the bay. But I I because because we just, you know, didn't know, we just took the boat and went sailing, you know. So we had airboats. We didn't get into any of the big boats, but just usually anywhere from, you know, up in the upper 20s, the Aquasports and Makos. They got a little bit bigger. But yeah, we had a very successful business.

Marcus Kruk:

And then one of the challenges we ran into was after frederick in 79. Uh, of course, we had a lot of recovery. There was a lot of damage and then, of course, the economy. You know, um, with jimmy carter was in office, there was a lot of excise taxes on fuel, um, luxury taxes, and so that was a combination of those those things.

Marcus Kruk:

The economy, the hurricane, that was a combination of those those things, the economy, the hurricane, that, that that you know, that's when we put the Marine up for sale and when it was sold, I was like, well, what am I supposed to do? That was my, that was what I was going to do for my life and it, you know it is actually. This entire interview was a little emotional, because then my wife just tells me to get a grip, but because it was such a you know, to to leak to, to not have it anymore, for it not to be part of our life, uh was I bet it was really really devastating for for us and uh yeah, you were about 16 when I guess yeah, oh my gosh yeah, 17, and uh, it was like that's, that was the plan.

Marcus Kruk:

So you know, such is life, right, every plan's changed. That's my dad to the right, my grandfather to the left and that's me and my dog. And that was a boat Dad had in New Jersey. It was the first fiberglass lures and it delaminated like a. You know, it was horrible.

Craig Reaves:

It did last too, long.

Marcus Kruk:

But we had. It was a charter boat and we chartered it Captain Gaston Hunter, who lived down there in Bear Point. He was our captain and I would be the mate. But I was a horrible mate because I just wanted to fish. I didn't understand. I was supposed to be working.

Marcus Kruk:

So, Captain Hunter. He said he told my dad he said you better get your boy in line. He's not going back out with me anymore because he's fishing over the customers. But you know I'm slow so it took me a while to figure it out, but I finally got there, wow.

Tinsley Myrick:

Again. You were really cute. So this was how old were you there? About 10?.

Marcus Kruk:

Probably maybe seven, eight, maybe Eight or 9. 73, 72, something like that 1970. Yeah.

Tinsley Myrick:

Okay, and here's. Stan Kruk and his wife Dee, announced the Dockside Club and what is the Dockside Club?

Marcus Kruk:

That's not really ringing any bells. I guess it might have been just the uh, the bar inside the marina. Uh, because we, you know we really got it. It was a hot spot back in the day, you know everybody down there, of course oh, I'm sure today you know, everybody would come down there and I don't know. You guys probably know this, but there was a big crack in the floor. You know, all the way down, uh, east, uh, east to west, west was a big crack and you'd walk in.

Tinsley Myrick:

Is the crack still there?

Marcus Kruk:

Craig no, Did you ever hear about the crack Craig?

Craig Reaves:

I never did no.

Marcus Kruk:

Really yeah, so it was a big thing, even when I run into people. You know, from the day they talk about that. Yeah, it was a significant crack in the floor. It all tilted towards the boat basin.

Tinsley Myrick:

Oh, so the structure got affected by? When did that come about?

Marcus Kruk:

No, don't know. So it was there whenever we bought it, so it was just part of it.

Craig Reaves:

We just let it be Worked around it.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah worked around it.

Marcus Kruk:

It was a good place to stump your toe, because nobody wore shoes back then.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah, I guess they made you fix that. Let's see you have any other than Frederick. Did you have any memorable hurricanes?

Marcus Kruk:

No, there really wasn't any. I know, you know, everybody would talk about Camille and then Frederick, and that was really it. You know we, we never really had anything other than those two.

Tinsley Myrick:

You were there. You didn't really get it bad for Camille, though, did you?

Marcus Kruk:

No, we weren't there for Camille, right, Because Camille was what Well?

Tinsley Myrick:

it was 69. It was 69.

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah, 10 years later, 79 for Frederick, yep.

Marcus Kruk:

Right so no, we didn't really feel anything from from that. But but no, you know, I don't really never was ever really tuned into the fact that we were in a place that had hurricanes until Frederick. And then you know, obviously there it was. But I remember we we came down canal road and we turned, turned to come down to the Marina and the water was up about more than halfway up the road. You know it was up that high but not a lot of damage to the marina. We lost all the tops of all the boat sheds but that was really really about it in damage. So yeah, we weathered fairly well.

Tinsley Myrick:

What about the boats that were in there?

Marcus Kruk:

Boats did fine, fine, yeah, boats did good, um, but that's, you know, I don't remember any boats, you know. Then, again, back I was, what was I? Maybe 16 then, or maybe or may, no, um, I don't, I don't, but it I don't remember anything with. Uh, I do remember all the metal you know, tops of all the boat sheds were all, were all gone and uh and a lot of.

Tinsley Myrick:

So there were. There were tops like people there were, yeah, covers over the slips.

Marcus Kruk:

Yes, we had covered slips. Sure did yeah we did.

Tinsley Myrick:

You know that craig yeah, I did.

Craig Reaves:

I knew somebody had a boat, or their grandfather had a boat in here in the early 70s. Um, or their grandfather had a boat in here in the early 70s. Is the name of the boat, by any chance, dean Stewart?

Marcus Kruk:

Was it the Marco?

Craig Reaves:

I don't know, it may have been. It was a trawler, and I've got a picture of the little spider monkey that y'all had on the counter going through the cabinets. Yeah Well, the monkey going through the cabinets.

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah Well, the monkey, because I hated that monkey, the monkey. Whenever we built the showroom across the street, we leased out the lounge and then we also had a mechanic shop on property and we leased the mechanics, leased that out and the people that leased the lounge had the uh how, the spider monkey. But craig, I think that that's the boat it was. It was a trawler style wooden. It was called that sounds right, yeah, yeah and uh and mr stewart, I think he had uh one arm that's possible.

Marcus Kruk:

I don't know, I don't, I really don't, I'm not sure I think he was missing an arm, but uh, but that was. That was the you. I was getting a little older then and that was where we would camp out and in all the little hoodlums down in Bear Point. We'd all gather down there and had so much fun.

Tinsley Myrick:

Well, what was it like back there in the neighborhood at that time? I know it used to be just pretty much, and in the time I've been here since 1990 I've seen it change drastically from trailers to now a lot more houses and trailers it was rough.

Marcus Kruk:

It was I. I told this to my landscaper. I uh, he installed some yucca plants around my, my barn and I said I didn't want yuccas because I we had in the pool tables a lot of the guys that were coming in there. They would try to rig the pool tables to get free pool. You'd put a match stick in the thing and push it in and the balls would come out. So I told dad.

Marcus Kruk:

And then the next night here are these, you know, teenagers grabbing me and they were hanging me over the yucca plants. And you know, yucca plants don't feel good, uh, but the boat rigger and the boat mechanic came and and kicked the crap out of them. So I was, I was good there for a while, but it was a rough place, uh, you know, you hear stories of like billy walker and, uh, butch frith, um, and those guys were uh, I've heard about the friths, those are some characters if they wanted ice and nobody was there, and if the ice wasn't a machine but the ice, you know, maker, had a lock on it, they would pop the lock off with a crowbar.

Marcus Kruk:

I mean, it was, and there were no. There were no police, you know. There were no cops at all down there at all, so there was no law enforcement whatsoever. We had to enforce our own place and we had some tough guys, though we had a couple of really tough boat riggers, a mechanic and a system mechanic, but it was our own police force to prevent theft or prevent damage or anything.

Tinsley Myrick:

So the boat owners would come out there and take care of whatever problems.

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah, we did really, but it was a rough place. It was. You know, I would probably never consider myself a fighter, but growing up down there you had to because it was interesting, but a lot of the people that were there they were coming in from mainly. You know, I would say central Alabama south was a lot of the trailers and a lot of the homes. You know it was just a getaway for people that. You know they had their trailer there.

Tinsley Myrick:

So it was a lot of second homes, a lot of second homes. I was imagining, like fishermen and stuff that lived back there. No, it wasn't.

Marcus Kruk:

I don't know who built that down there or created those roads or really tried to market it or promote it, but it was really all second homes. I had hundreds of friends that would come down and in the summertime it was so much fun We'd all go down to the pier and hang out, but it was very few permanent residents, mainly people just coming in. But even the residents down there really weren't fishermen per se. You know. I know we were known as a fishing community but that's something that really didn't ever, really, you know, wasn't ever part of my art.

Marcus Kruk:

My thought process at the time it was more farmers and, and because we did so well with mercury, it would be the farmers. They would come in because you know foley and roberahel, alberta, all the big farms that were down here, and they'd come in in their overalls and reach in their pocket and pull out a big wad of cash and buy, you know, a Mercury motor or a boat or you know from Dad and Dad had a. Dad was really a neat. He had a lot of following down there. People really loved dad and dad loved everybody. And you know, at the time we had plans. You'll enjoy this. We had plans at the time, before Frederick.

Marcus Kruk:

Dad had all this in works, to move the road behind where the parking lot is now, yep, and then we were going to do dry storage and we were going to do a couple of condos, and then we were going to get into some different, different boat lines, um, but then that's when frederick hit, and then then the economy, and then. So all that never happened.

Tinsley Myrick:

But that was, that was the future, future plans we had for it at the time well, when I looked at the county website um, because you know, being a realtor I noticed that that parking lot is deeded to Bear Harbor, bear Point Harbor LLC. And I was wondering if that road had been added, like if had all been one big piece of property ever, or was it like acquired or something?

Marcus Kruk:

yeah no we cleared that off to build the, because I remember the tree. You know trees over there. There's a road behind it, you know, it's really just like it is now, other than that was just all wooded and then we cleared it off to build it.

Tinsley Myrick:

But you bought that. Your dad bought the property with.

Marcus Kruk:

I don't think he. I don't think he bought it with the Marine. I think he acquired it after.

Tinsley Myrick:

Okay.

Craig Reaves:

But I'm not 100 sure. My understanding is. My understanding is one of the paper companies one of the large paper companies is who originally developed the 50 by 100 foot lots, laid the roads out and they were dirt back then, um, and so I think that's where all the central alabama people came from. They were a, it was almost a. It was developed there really for workers to have fishing places and that kind of thing for the workers of the paper mill. That's awesome, and so a lot of the management types had places down here and that kind of thing and other people as well. But that was my, that's what I've heard. But you know who knows? Yeah, I think you're spot on that. That was my, that's what I've heard but you know, who knows?

Marcus Kruk:

yeah, I think you're spot on. That's, that's what. That's the way I always understood it to be, because it was a lot of plant workers, um and uh. But I tell you you're talking about shrimping and and fishing and floundering and it was so much of that going on. You know, I mean it was uh, uh, water skiing. You know it was uh with small boats. You know, uh, it still today blows my mind when I cruise to Arnicott Bay heading over. You know we weren't going to want to go down to Pensacola Pass and how rough it is out there now and it just never was. I had a little B craft. It was a little, I don't know, maybe a 13, 14 foot B craftraft, a little 10 horse horse, mercury on the back, and I was only allowed to run inside the boat, mason until I would go so fast and then the boats would rock and then they'd complain to dad.

Marcus Kruk:

Dad finally said okay, get out of the bay, which is my plan all along, but I can take that little boat anywhere I could go over to, you know, head out to Alabama point or and uh, you know, of course, I wasn't good on fuel management. So many times I came home with a five gallon tank over my head draining all the fuel down to get home. But uh, uh, yeah, it's, uh, it was, it was, it was but where did you go to school?

Tinsley Myrick:

Where did you go to school?

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah, I went to Foley high school. Where did you go to school? Yeah, I went to Foley High School and it's so funny. You know people all run into them, you know and go. Oh yeah, I grew up down there I'm going well, when and they tell me I'm like well, I didn't see you on the bus.

Marcus Kruk:

And they, oh, no, no, no, my grandfather had a place and I went to McGill or I went here, like, okay, like you said, all the marina, the folks, gulfgate Lodge, which is the McCarrans and Sportsman's, the Adams and Orange Beach was the Peters. That bus was not even. It wasn't a shore bus, it was a bit full-size bus but it wasn't even halfway full.

Tinsley Myrick:

Then you had to go to the Swing Bridge and Gulf Shores with all those guys.

Marcus Kruk:

That's something I don't remember. I don't remember the swing bridge in Gulf Shores. I know I did, I know what over, but I just don't remember it. But I do remember the one over there towards you know, the one at Alabama point, because dad being in the Navy when we first got there, he would actually the first. When I first went to school I went to St Benedict's because he would take me that way over through Alberta, drop me off and then he would go to the Naval Air Station.

Tinsley Myrick:

It was a long ride to school.

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah, yeah, and he would. Of course we'd get caught on that bridge sometimes and he would. You know, being in the Navy, you're very, you have to be punctual. So I remember him speeding down that road, you know, at high speeds, to get to get me to school and then to get to get to the base, but yeah.

Tinsley Myrick:

What a chore to get to school, I mean.

Marcus Kruk:

And, and you know Foley going to Foley on the bus, you know you get that hot bus and come all the way to the bear point you, by the time you got home, you were, you know, you were exhausted, you were dehydrated, and we of course nobody knew the word hydration back then, right?

Tinsley Myrick:

so right, yeah, nobody drank water, but when I moved here in 90 there were no lights. In 1990 there were no lights between gulf tours and foley. I mean you could just drive it was awesome.

Marcus Kruk:

And, speaking of water, we would get our water. It was a well pump behind the which is the keg now, but that was the post office and we would go there and fill gallon jugs and that was our drinking water and then we had fresh water from a well there, but it was so acidic or tannic that everybody, everybody that lived down there, even vacation on there you know white T-shirts were popular back then lived down there, even vacation down there. You know white t-shirts were popular back then. Everybody had orange t-shirts because the uh, when you wash your clothes that water would turn all your white stuff orange, but you can tell anybody to live down there, but that's where.

Marcus Kruk:

when I tell people that's where we'd go get our drinking water, they go like, no, they, they wouldn't, they, they don't believe me. I mean, no, that's how. That's the water we drank. We would, we would have to go there to get, we would fill up four or five gallons of water at a time, you know. But but then, whenever city water came in and I don't remember when that was uh, but uh, of course that you know went away, but it was probably um late 70s, mid to late 70s.

Tinsley Myrick:

Well, the city of orange beach formed in 84. I don't know if it was you know, if it was, I don't know if it coincided with that. It was definitely before then, when we had you know not non-well water, so yeah, so I want to ask Craig that we talked about Frederick. Now let's talk about Sally. That was your introduction to marina ownership, just a few years after.

Craig Reaves:

We had a few little practice sessions, with some tropical storms and that kind of thing and some near misses. That was pretty real. We got off light.

Tinsley Myrick:

You had already started making some upgrades before.

Craig Reaves:

Yeah, we had done a lot of dock rebuild and that kind of thing. Really, the things that got destroyed and carried off were things that needed to be torn out anyway and replaced and it just it was the timetable was a little pushed up from what I was planning, but it all worked. I mean, we really got off light. We didn't lose the. We lost the docks, didn't lose many of the pilings, and so we were able to just go re-dock everything. For the most part it was a big cleanup. I mean, it took us a year really to get it all back together, but we were. We were operational by March, by the beginning of the next season, and we were really the first ones to do that. I mean, everybody else could afford to miss the season. I guess I couldn't. So we dove in and got it done. But how did?

Tinsley Myrick:

the restaurant and the dock store do.

Craig Reaves:

They probably about four feet of water in each one and so, or you know, right at three feet anyway, and breaking waves on top of that. But we did some innovative things, I don't know. We tore things out. We tore things out pretty quickly and got our you know in and, uh, they're just tried to stabilize everything as well as we could the electrical systems and that kind of thing. We did some things that I did I never thought I'd do. We, we rented a water trailer from United Rentals. They they ended up getting a bunch of equipment to us pretty quickly after the storm. We pulled all the breakers out and rinsed everything down with fresh water All the breakers which are still operational today and we doused them all. We washed them out with fresh water and then we coated everything in WD-40. With fresh water. And then we, uh, we coated everything in wd-40 and by the time they pulled the, put the power back on. We put them back into the to the boxes and they're rolling.

Tinsley Myrick:

So I don't know how many more times city inspection yeah, well, it didn't didn't change anything.

Craig Reaves:

We, the the boxes all made it, all that stuff was fine. So wow, it was um. But yeah, it was um, it was a lot. I mean, we we really got off being on the north side of the island. We ended up um, sheltered somewhat. We got a lot of east, you know, and and west, but we didn't get that southern exposure that sportsman and all those guys really got hit with, and barbara even that's where I was, yeah yeah, um, I had just moved over there from Bear Point.

Tinsley Myrick:

That's right and then right next to sportsman's at Messabout Marina, yeah, and about a month and a half later, here comes Sally.

Craig Reaves:

Yeah, it was interesting. But you know, I'm going to tell you the coolest thing about that and in this community I'm so thankful to live where I live. As soon as the water went down, we had probably good people that kind of suggested that we have rental equipment there. So we had a long list of stuff. United Rentals got it right down here. I was kind of the head of the list because we just moved. It was suggested that we get those things on site. We ended up getting everything before everybody kind of started putting their orders in and so like on the Friday, after the storm hit on Tuesday the water went down, everybody cleaned up their 50 by 100 foot lot.

Craig Reaves:

We had probably 40 people or 50 people from the community that showed up with shovels and brooms and whatever, and by the weekend it really didn't look like anything had happened. I mean like in some areas of the marina it didn't look so hard hit like you know the barley, like it was ready to open, um, those kinds of things, that. But and these people just showed up and I, I it's amazing we have people from you know that that have got places there from michigan that drove down and you know jumped in and you know the charter guys in the marina down here and and uh, incredible community, it just and nobody expected anything out of it. They just it was their place, they take ownership of it somewhat and they, they, they take. You know they want to see it thrive, which is an incredible partnership that we have with this community and I love it.

Tinsley Myrick:

It's been great well I know I was that was one of the questions I wanted to ask you, so that just happened.

Craig Reaves:

It you didn't request help, it just happened no, they showed up like what can we do? A pile of people. But they were. I mean, there were people that were. They would go buy 30 pizzas and ride around and give it to whoever's working in the neighborhood to clean it up. I mean it was just. The whole effort was just neighbors helping neighbors, people showing up loading generators, and I had people drive over. My brother drove over from Destin with a big cooler of beer and water and ice and a big generator and a bunch of stuff and dropped it off. We had several people do those kinds of things that were just so nice. It just was thoughtful. It really was one of those things I tend to pay back. We have to think about that when another area is hit that we have a connection with or whatever, to dive in and help that way. It's just such a blessing.

Tinsley Myrick:

Well, I know that you've done something recent, done something recent that the Fairpoint, the help me out here the launch area, you've loaned some of your property, haven't you?

Craig Reaves:

We have? I mean, it was that boundary layer, that just the setback, you know, around that we owned. That really was kind of a. I mean, we were maintaining it but we didn't really use it. It was too narrow of a strip to do a whole lot of good, but it was next to a bunch of parking spaces for golf carts and that kind of thing. And we have an excellent relationship with the leadership of the Bear Point Civic Association and they're, you know, we work together on all these things, and so we did. You know we worked together on all these things, and they so we. We did, you know, take the fence down and let them, you know, rock all the way to the dock, which, you know we're not having to mow much rock.

Tinsley Myrick:

So the grass being gone doesn't hurt my feelings, isn't that?

Marcus Kruk:

nice Marcus. Yeah, that was such a nice. You know the, the flow that would go from the marina down to the, to the, to the association pier and, and I remember the the fence being there. When I saw that fence it was like, oh no, you know, because it was, it was such a symbiotic relationship. I mean, everybody just went back and forth. That's, that's awesome. You guys did that.

Tinsley Myrick:

That really is yeah, now you can walk right right from my boat slip. I can walk right out there, yeah perfect, I'm not going to trespass but I could. But you're fine.

Craig Reaves:

It's open and nobody the marina people especially they've worked great. The Civic Association has had really have gotten along great and worked together on a ton of stuff and it's really just a you know.

Marcus Kruk:

Yeah.

Tinsley Myrick:

You don't often see that. I mean I'm in real estate. I know a lot of HOAs are always fighting with people. That's right. So that's right then. So what? When? So that was like four years after you bought the marina when, um, when all the people came to help. So did that just solidify like, wow, I'm in the right spot yeah, I mean I already knew I was, but it did that.

Craig Reaves:

That nailed it home for him. It drove it home for sure. I um it really. It just it's been a this community that when I bought the marina, I looked at the numbers and I looked at the and I've been through here, you know, buying fuel since the late 90s, um, and that kind of thing kind of been eaten in the restaurants here that were here through the years, that kind of thing and um, and so it worked financially. I had no idea what was behind this over here. I didn't. I didn't know anything about the neighborhood. Man, what a gem. This place as a place to live is fantastic. It really is just a great community. Really. Everybody gets along and it works. They don't get along all the time, but it gets worked out. People are people, but I mean not everybody's on the same page all the time, but it's the best community I've ever lived in.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah, for sure, that's great, you're a great leader there. Yeah, you are, so tell us about the Oso transition.

Craig Reaves:

Well, we just kind of looked around a little bit. Tyler Keene was a friend of mine. He owned the Fairhope Inn for about 20 years and that was one of my favorite places to eat in Fairhope. You know, I went and talked to him. It was kind of a weird deal. I went and talked to him just kind of doing some, exploring what else we might do here with. You know, just a different vision and a different you know?

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah, there was Flippers there.

Craig Reaves:

Yeah, Flippers.

Tinsley Myrick:

And I guess I can't remember how long they were in there.

Craig Reaves:

They were there for about, I guess about nine years. I think they opened in 2009 or so and I think we changed out. Well, I guess 11 years, 19 was their last season. Anyway, we just kind of wanted a fresher start, a fresher take on the deal, and I knew Tyler would run a tight shift and knew that he did, and I just ate there, like a week ago, and it was wonderful it's very different than from every time I've eaten there with you since you've had it, it's been awesome well glad to hear that.

Craig Reaves:

But we um anyway, yeah, tyler, and that was another god thing um, I went and talked to tyler and he said, yeah, I'm interested. This sounds like fun. I'm tired of the white tablecloth and the you know the wedding things and all that kind of stuff. So he was kind of interested in doing something after 20 years, doing something a little different, something more casual and that kind of thing. And so, anyway, he called me about a week and a half after that and he said hey, I hope you were serious about this deal because, um, I just had a lady walk in here and make me an offer on the end that I can't refuse all right well, come on, so we'll think we'll figure it out.

Tinsley Myrick:

So um so did he have. Oh, so early first I was really sad that they closed.

Craig Reaves:

Yeah well, we tried to move the breakfast thing down here to replace that and I don't know why it has not. I think they had more volume down there for sure than we've had with the breakfast thing up here. Maybe it just takes a while to build into a new place.

Tinsley Myrick:

But was that Tyler's?

Craig Reaves:

Yeah, but he did Oso here, he did the restaurant here and we opened it in 2020. And then I guess it was 22 or so when he opened Oso early. Oh, okay, so I didn't have any involvement.

Tinsley Myrick:

No, oso early was just a good one did. No, it's the best omelet I've ever had in my life and I wish, oh my god, I used to go there. Just for that it was.

Craig Reaves:

It was so delicious yeah, they changed the menu fairly often. I mentioned that. I mentioned that to them, so they did change it a pretty good bit and then, uh, and so it. You know just, you may see it again. I don't know, I just um, but anyway all right.

Tinsley Myrick:

So, uh, let's see, um, what I okay, you've changed. You've changed, uh, that whole section there into commercial, and I'm sure that was a very smart business decision, I'm sure. So how's that going over with all the business there and everything? I'm not going to ask for your P&L sheet or anything. I'm on a call.

Craig Reaves:

I think everybody's doing well. Of course we had some record years during COVID.

Marcus Kruk:

I got a surprise guest. He's just going to say hey, this is Wade Ward. Oh my gosh.

Tinsley Myrick:

Wade, hey, wade, wade. I interviewed your son.

Marcus Kruk:

I want to interview you, but there's Wade, he's my buddy. Tell him I want to.

Tinsley Myrick:

You got to get a commitment from him because I want to interview him. He's a Gulf Shores historian. Come see it. I, because I want to interview him. He's a Gulf Shores historian. Come see it.

Marcus Kruk:

I'll come see you tomorrow, Hi buddy.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah, you're going to have to watch Joey's. I'll send you.

Marcus Kruk:

Craig and Joey's interview, because he's such a character Okay. That's his dad right there. Dad's not the character, he's the dad. He's a good dad, he's an awesome dad.

Craig Reaves:

Welley's got great stories about the different things that that wade accomplished here in gulf shores and joey's a good storyteller yeah, he is so um, tell us, tell us about the how you've increased the commercial, the commercial business there we just we've kind of just tried to maximize parking and maximize their space and make it a more comfortable, inviting place and more versatile.

Craig Reaves:

Really, you know, turning what used to be the sandbox or whatever that we've turned, that we've used now for the green area out there, the turf area, used it now for the green area out there, the turf area and the shading, all that has enabled us to use that for events as well as just even the people waiting to get on a dolphin cruise or a charter boat or just a nice sitting area.

Craig Reaves:

It kind of expands. We did some things, changed the bar around last year, moved the stage to the other end, so there's more the way we had the bar done. To start with, it kind of cut the audience in half, so we kind of slid, kind of swapped that up a little bit so that we're open. It's kind of a challenging space anyway because it's so long and skinny and narrow, but I think we probably took a wall out and did kind of increase visibility from the band out to the green space, to the east down there, which enables us to have a larger crowd or more than one event going on, so we can have multiple things going on at once.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah, you got two stages right yeah, that's right.

Craig Reaves:

So that's working well. We have plans to kind of expand that or optimize it a little bit, do some things like that.

Tinsley Myrick:

And you move the regular boaters people like me to the other side and maximize that space for commercial. I think that was well. You know this.

Craig Reaves:

That was very smart well, by the time I got here it was mostly commercial over there. Anyway there were. There were just a couple that we had to slide across.

Tinsley Myrick:

So a couple of outlanders that were that were fighting the system, weren't they, they were hanging in there, yeah, but uh they wanted to be. They wanted to park right in front of their boat. I don't blame them, but I was talking, I can't remember his name. He's over there next to me now. He said that it's actually a lot more peaceful over there. There's not so many people walking by. So yeah, he was happy I'm glad.

Craig Reaves:

I'm glad he is.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah, he was one of the holdouts, so uh and then marcus he, in order to book those slips that are out there in the rocky area that gets from the waves. I don't know why I'm so halting. Help me out, Craig. You put lifts in.

Craig Reaves:

We've got about 16 lifts in for smaller center console boats which we were never able to lease those very effectively just because the water was so rough for the smaller boats.

Tinsley Myrick:

That's a great idea. That's a great idea, isn't that smart? Yeah, it's worked.

Craig Reaves:

It's been good and we've had a good response with that A lot of people in the neighborhood. It's kind of like having access, like waterfront access to your boat, where all you do is have to go hit the switch but you're not paying for waterfront property. So it's been a good fit here. It's been pretty well received. A little bit of a maintenance issue, but you know it survived. All that stuff survived. Sadly, we got it up out of the water and you know it makes us a little more hurricane resilient, resistant, whatever there.

Craig Reaves:

I think that was really smart he was having trouble renting them because the fools that come down the ICW create yeah, we saw a lot of that this weekend, so Blue Angels is my favorite weekend in a lot of ways, and not my favorite in that way so what else are you doing out there?

Tinsley Myrick:

what have we not covered? What great ideas have you implemented or have in the future?

Craig Reaves:

this year we're kind of. This year we're kind of you got these shirts. You got these, that's right, the v-neck shirts yeah, yeah, it was your request that we we did I gotta come, I gotta come get one yeah well, come on yeah the store looks great, looks better than I've ever seen it.

Tinsley Myrick:

I always wanted to buy a shirt, but Women like V-necks. No matter how fat you are Skinny, you are ugly good looking. We look better in V-neck shirts. So, I thank you, craig. So, anyway, you were going to say something about Sherry.

Craig Reaves:

Yeah, no, the store is Sherry's ballgame. She is. She does a great job over there keeping us stocked, decorated, new inventory or new items in, and she I don't know, she never quits moving. She's like a shark, you know Well, you're smart enough to let her loose. Oh yeah, let her go Absolutely. She's something. She's been a huge blessing. I can tell you my greatest one, I think.

Tinsley Myrick:

Marcus, have you met Sherry?

Marcus Kruk:

I have not no.

Tinsley Myrick:

You'll have to check her out.

Marcus Kruk:

I will, she's a character.

Tinsley Myrick:

She's another character. She is a character.

Marcus Kruk:

She's in a great place then.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah, that's right. That's right. Marinas are always full of characters, so anything that you guys want to cover that we haven't. Marcus, do you have any good stories you want to share with us?

Marcus Kruk:

with that, we just can't live without oh, you know it's uh you know I just growing up, you know I I'm, you know I've you got. You guys have all mentioned God a couple times. It was just a true blessing to uh, to have grown up there and to have that opportunity to you know, to live, live in such an incredible place with so many incredible people, and it's something that's always near and dear to my heart, and it was near and dear to my dad's heart before he passed away, and my mom and we, just it's part of us. I mean, you know it's in our blood. And I'm so glad, craig, that you're there, cause you, you're very fitting you. It, it's an honor to see you at the helm and it makes me feel good and you know it's it, it is, it's. It was an emotional thing when we left and I had trouble going back for the longest time. You know, but, but, but now that you're there, I'm, I. It's almost yes, it's almost closure for me.

Tinsley Myrick:

And that means see right here on the salty podcast. These are the things that happen.

Tinsley Myrick:

Well, I guess that's it then. I hate to end it, but we have been on here for a little over an hour. I know you guys have things to do do, but maybe we can do it again. Maybe there'll be some more stories, some more pictures when you get those. So just for the people that are watching and this will be on audio podcast too, by the way, um, spotify all those apple. Um, when you get you, marcus has a uh, an attic full of slides and one day he's going to go up in there and we're going to convert them to images. Maybe we can come back on here and we can show some more images, some historical photos.

Marcus Kruk:

I promise, I promise, I even found the projector. So whenever we, whenever we sail, here and we get it.

Tinsley Myrick:

I haven't heard that in a while. Let's get the projector out.

Marcus Kruk:

I put a sheet up, I guess, to put it on there. I don't have that.

Craig Reaves:

Put a sail up.

Tinsley Myrick:

Yeah, there you go.

Craig Reaves:

And so Craig can put.

Tinsley Myrick:

Craig wants to put them out throughout, you know, the restaurant and the dock store and everything I think that would be an excellent touch. Pictures of your dad and your mom and you and everything.

Craig Reaves:

Yeah, I love the history of it. Yeah, awesome.

Marcus Kruk:

All right.

Tinsley Myrick:

Well, thanks so much for coming on, you guys. This has been a lot of fun, and you want to say something else?

Craig Reaves:

Just saying it's great being with you and hearing the stories from Marcus and all that A lot of fun, thank you.

Tinsley Myrick:

All right, guys, and the way I like to end my salty podcast is to say salty, abandoned out.

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