Amelia River Cruises’ Newest Member – Captain Nate Parsons

“The beauty and power of the Cumberland Sound constantly amazes me. Whether it is seeing Loggerhead turtles feeding on horseshoe-crabs, the sheer joy in family interactions of pods of dolphin, the kaleidoscope of colors and variety of all the different waterfowl and raptors, the ebb and flow of massive tides, four times a day. The symphony of nature is in full force from the shores of the Amelia River.” ~ Nate Parsons

Amelia River Cruises’ Newest Member – Captain Nate Parsons

is captain Nate Parsons, born and raised in his family’s marina, on the South shore of Lake Erie. The town in Ohio, was known as “the village of captains,” between Cleveland and Sandusky.

Nate is the son of a son of many sailors, captains, boat builders and fisherman. Solomon Parsons, (Nate’s 5x great-grandfather) and family moved to the area in 1811, from Roxbury, NY and started the boat building industry there in 1814. As the family grew, nearly everyone worked on the water in some way.

“I joke that I grew up with Champagne tastes on a beer budget” Nate says. His day started by putting on shorts, a life jacket and heading out the door to work or play on sailboats or power boats, large and small. He would count out, thousands of worms and minnows, for sale to fisherman at his parent’s bait shop on the river.

Long before personal water craft and wake boards, Nate was only allowed to use the family’s rental 14’ aluminum boats with 7.5 HP Evinrude outboards, when he could carry and mount the huge two-stroke engines. He tells of how the engines weren’t powerful enough to ski behind, so he and friends would make water sleds, from wood, that they would tow at top speed around the lake. “Today when we see folks tubing on the Amelia River or in the Cumberland Sound, we call that, high-speed chumming” Nate says.

Nate’s babysitter who he calls his big sister, 1986 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Heidi Backus Riddle, taught Nate how to sail at four-years-old. (The photos of him in diapers and her in John Denver glasses are in a vault somewhere.) Sailboat racing and junior sailing have taken Nate all over, from Key West to Baltimore, Annapolis to Newport, Newport to Bermuda, Boston to Halifax, San Diego to Ensenada, Chicago to Mackinaw, Port Huron to Mackinaw and around the Great Lakes.

“Junior sailing is one of the causes that is near and dear to my heart.” Nate says “The community is really tight knit; some of my best friends I met junior sailing as a teenager. We then sailed together at different college regattas and other national regattas around the country. One of the great things about sailing is that it is a lifelong pursuit, fit for any age” says Nate. “I would really like to be part of a group, here in Fernandina Beach, that starts a junior sailing program.” He says that the confidence and respect for nature that sailing builds is invaluable. “Sailing is as ancient as the pyramids, if not older and took our ancestors around the globe, long before the compass, radio or GPS.”

Nate’s day job consisted of 14 years traveling the world as a journalist followed by five years working for Baldwin Wallace University, a private university outside Cleveland, Ohio, in the communications and marketing department.

Not long after they began dating, his spouse, Amy Franks Parsons, brought Nate to Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island for the first time in 2013. She discovered the Island from family friend Sue Nelson, who owns The Book Loft downtown.

Amy was an island girl from 2000 to 2013 before returning to Vermilion to be near her parents. “We went to high school together and our parents were and still are good friends, but Amy and I didn’t run in the same crowd.” The pair reacquainted, sweet home Alabama style, at the town “Festival of the Fish” and have been inseparable since. Both were married previously, with careers that had them traveling extensively, nationally and internationally and were ready to settle down.

Married in 2014, under the water tower by the Vermilion river, the couple lived in town near Nate’s children and both of their families. The new blended family would visit Amelia Island often over the next five years. “We always knew we were moving to Fernandina Beach, it was just a matter of when.”

2018 turned out to be the year. Nate and Amy moved full-time to the island in May and started working at Amelia River Cruises before the last box was unpacked.

“Some say that the water calls to you, but it is where I am most at peace” Nate says working with Amelia River Cruises & Charters allows him to combine all his passions. “Storytelling, visual communication with still photos / video on social media and being on the water, it’s the best office I have ever worked.” he says. Nate is a talker, he gets going and it is hard to get a word in edgewise.

Lord only knows where the stories will end up, between history, geography, science, sailing, sports, journalism and family. “I look at history as time travel that you get to view through different perspectives, depending who is doing the telling or writing.” Like all our captains, Nate is able to weave the threads through many different eras and bring our guests a sense of what it was like in each time period and the amazing natural beauty of the Cumberland Sound area.

Nate and Amy can often be found at the Nassau County Dog Park, near the airport, with their two springer spaniels, Happy and Derby, sailing on the Cumberland Sound with friends or watching the full moon rise over the Atlantic on American Beach.

Personal motto: Sail fast, live slow

Last book read: How to Avoid Huge Ships by John W. Trimmer

Celebrate one of our significant sunsets with us.  Bring your family and who knows Nate Parson might be your captain on this tour. 

Categorised in: Our Staff