As the sun rises on a summer Sunday morning over the Murrells Inlet salt marsh, the captain of the New Inlet Princess announces over a loudspeaker that it’s time, finally, to step aboard. And so we—more than 50 anglers eagerly waiting in line—stream across the gangplank and take up our positions on the ship.
Some of us stretch out on the upper deck, and others sit on benches along the gunwales. A few plop down in the galley, and some stand aft, looking back toward land. Then the diesel engines fire, and the crew unties the heavy dock lines. We’re off, steaming out to sea, past the jetties and into the Atlantic Ocean, heading toward the Gulf Stream.
All of us on board—young and old, tourist and local—share a simple goal: We want to catch fish. We want vermilion snapper, amberjack, grouper, porgies, grunts, mahi-mahi, triggerfish and every other bottom-dwelling species swimming in the deep waters far offshore. And we want to do so at a fraction of the price—around one-tenth—of what it would cost to hire a private charter, and an even smaller fraction—around two-thousandths—of what it would cost to buy an offshore boat…