Second Chance and beyond: Destin's educator captain reflects on a lifetime of lessons

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first part of a two part series on Destin Capt. Frank Ready.

Charter boat captains are born, not made.

As a young boy growing up in Cinco Bayou in Fort Walton Beach, Destin’s Frank Ready loved looking out over the water and watching the sun set.

“By the age of 13, I was paddling around in anything that would float and spent all the time I could on the water, especially when I needed to escape intense family dynamics,” he told The Log. “Even before I had a driver's license or car, I had a boat of some kind.”

Although Frank didn’t grow up on the docks like a lot of the captains in Destin, he soon came to the love the waters of the Gulf. And the fishing, for him, was good.

Frank Ready was born Frank Wolf IV on Thanksgiving Day, 1943, in Philadelphia. His parents divorced when he was very young, and his stepfather, James Ready, adopted him and changed his name to Frank W. Ready.

A graduate of Choctawhatchee High School in 1962 and Troy State University with a master’s degree in guidance and counseling, Frank worked as an accountant for Nick Nicholson for a few years, but hated to sit down to work. He then began his work as a guidance counselor at Fort Walton Beach High School and retired in 2000 after 33 years of service to Okaloosa County schools.

He and his wife, Mary, have been married 45 years and have two sons, James and Frank.

A MAN OF THE SEA

Frank met the other love of his life in 1969, when he bought his first boat, a 17-foot with an outboard motor, followed by a 32-foot Chris Craft which he kept for six or seven years.

It was then that Frank met Capt. Charlie Burgess and became a real fisherman with a captain’s license.

“When I met Charlie Burgess, he fired me up with enthusiasm for Gulf fishing,” Frank told The Log. “I became his deckhand even while I was working at FWBHS. One July, driving back to Fort Walton from Destin in heavy traffic after fishing all day, I decided I had to move to Destin if I was to remain in charter fishing so it wouldn't take two hours to drive home.”

When he moved to Destin, Frank said he was looked at as an outsider by the local captains, even though he had his license by then. But over time he convinced them that he fit in.

“I think it was because I had a primary career in education and fishing was a summer and weekend thing for me,” he said. “When they began to tease me and joke around with me, I knew I had been accepted. By the time I retired from FWBHS and went full time on charter fishing, no one even remembered I hadn't been a Destin resident all my life.”

Frank’s first charter boat in 1979 was a 40-foot Willis, the Ever Ready. But his true love came about four years later — the Second Chance, a name he liked because it gave him a chance to witness when people asked the meaning of the name.

 “I would say that Christ died to give us a second chance,” he said. “In fact, God seems to give us a bunch of second chances because He has a lot of patience and forgiveness for us. Whenever I said these words, I internalized them to my own life. He has given me more than my share of second chances.

“One morning I was praying on the boat before a trip that God would help me figure out how to get a young friend of mine to Conyers, Ga., by the next day to see her very ill grandmother. A few minutes later, my customers came aboard. They were from Conyers, and would be driving back in the morning. A Christian family, they were happy to take the girl to Conyers. Wow! God answered that prayer in a matter of minutes after I spoke it.”

As a “people person,” Frank loved working with the customers, and formed many long-lasting friendships.

“I always tried to give them more than their money's worth, and would stay out extra time, at no charge, if necessary to be sure they got fish,” he said. “I always had a good time as well. It made me feel alive to be out on the water.”

But Frank has also lived a life for others on land.

To read that story in part II of this series, see the March 13 Faith page.