.Jack of all trades . . .

August 2023

By Tim Plouff

Linda Greenlaw has been on the world stage for over two decades, since the unexpected attention generated by her role in the book and movie “The Perfect Storm,” the dramatic depiction of swordfishing in the North Atlantic, off the Grand Banks. The movie led to great consumer interest in swordboat captains, their deep-sea fishing vessels and their fishery, in which Linda was the first and only female skipper.

This led to Capt. Greenlaw’s first book, “The Hungry Ocean.” This was quickly followed by “The Lobster Chronicles” and “All Fishermen are Liars” – all three national best-sellers. Then came five nonfiction works and four Jane Bunker mysteries.

Today, Capt. Greenlaw Wessel resides in Surry, Maine, on Newbury Neck, which is on Union River Bay. She runs a lobsterboat, has an oyster farm with her son-in law, runs an ever-expanding charterboat business, fishes for tuna, helps sell boats from her husband Stephen Wessel’s Wesmac Custom Boats, and currently she is starring in the latest season of the Discovery reality series, “Deadliest Catch.”

We sat down with Linda at her Wesmac office to shoot the breeze on a snowy Maine spring day.

Tim: You grew up in Topsham and went to Mt. Ararat High School. Tell me about your early years, your interests.

Linda: My dad worked at Bath Iron Works as an information-systems manager, yet we summered on Isle au Haut because of my family’s roots there. It’s such a special place; it’s where my affection for the ocean began. My family always had boats, going back and forth on the island and to Stonington, and I fell in love with all kinds of boats. We did a lot of recreational fishing growing up.

Tim: What was your first boat?

Linda: An old, dilapidated nine-foot, wooden rowboat I found in the woods. My siblings and I paddled it around with different-length oars, and we all learned how to handle a boat. My first real boat – not counting various skiffs and outboards in between – was a used 35-foot Duffy, a diesel-powered lobsterboat I bought during my time swordfishing, with the intent of going back to lobstering like when I was younger.

Earnest is my wooden lobsterboat now. Plus I have a custom 56-foot Wesmac called Select, several skiffs, and a 100-year-old dory I want to fix up. My fishing career has been captaining other people’s boats – big boats. I hire a crew, and we go fishing.

Tim: Who was your early mentor?

Linda: My parents. It was our thing to be together. I hunted and fished with my dad, and did lots of cooking with my mom, who was an excellent cook. We did two cookbooks together, which was very special. From an early age, my parents were the best mentors. At 19, I went swordfishing, and the captain and the crew became my mentors at that stage of my career.

Tim: What is your special place?

Linda: Isle au Haut. My husband and I still have a really nice house out there. But we don’t get out as often as I would like because, you know, we are invested here, running Wesmac Custom Boats, running charters out of here, lobstering from here. Going to Isle au Haut is usually a fleeting visit to check on the house or something. But my roots are there. Robinson’s Point Lighthouse, and the area around the light, was my paternal grandmother’s. We grew up summers in the keeper’s house, playing around the lighthouse and the waters in that cove.

Tim: You have been free to pursue your dreams: Did anyone ever stand in your way?

Linda: No! I know how to work, I love to work, and I’m very proud of my work ethic. If you find something you love to do, like fishing, it’s a different type of work. I’ve always pretty much done my own thing, and I feel like I have been supported.

Tim: You are a terrific storyteller. When or how did the writing bug strike?

Linda: I’ve always been a storyteller. Most of that blossomed after being away for such long trips. You had all of these experiences at sea, and you just wanted to share them. I never did get the writing bug; it’s not something I really enjoy, nothing I aspired to. I majored in English at Colby College, I liked reading, and I took enough literature courses to come away with an English degree.

The writing opportunity came to me from the generous portrayal of me in “The Perfect Storm,” and I started to get lots of attention from major publishers – like, we’re intrigued about you and your stories, and you have to write a book for us. I was very happy with fishing and my life at the time, and I never thought of doing anything else. I kept getting the calls from publishers, and I realized it was one hell of an opportunity that lots of my friends would die for. I was very fortunate to sign a contract to write “The Hungry Ocean,” and I thought, okay, one-book wonder, right?

The book did well, and along comes another opportunity, and the second book did even better. The third book did well, too. Now I’ve got 12 books out with my name on them, including two cookbooks I co-authored with my mom.

It was a great experience doing that with my mom because, growing up, I did lots of stuff with dad. Mom was 70 when we co-authored the first cookbook. She was a stay-at-home mom, raised four kids, was a wonderful cook, active in her community, but never had a paying job during her married life. We did our first book, got nice advance money, split it 50/50, and she thought that was pretty neat.

Tim: You have fished oceans all over the world and still call Surry, Maine, home.

Linda: I call Maine home, for sure. I’ve been to many beautiful places, with lots of great people. I’m drawn to fishing communities; my feeling of home is a small fishing community where you feel the pride. We’re losing that in Maine.

Tim: What’s it like being on Discovery Channel’s latest “Deadliest Catch” series (that aired from April to June) from Alaska?

Linda: Going to Alaska at this point in my fishing career, where fishing is still respected, the lifestyle and the livelihood are still revered, was amazing. You know, we are producing food, a healthy food source. The feeling is not as strong in some places, but old-timers like me still feel that way. In Alaska, everything in the town is supportive of fishing and warmly embraced.

Tim: Your passion is further on display in “The Maine Reset Videos,” a YouTube series (www.youtube.com/c/themainereset) on the perils facing the Maine Lobster-fishing industry. Are Maine Fishermen now facing their own figurative Perfect Storm?

Linda: Yeah, you know, we have this six-year reprieve [on new, stricter gear standards and harvest rules] but is it really six years? Is it two; is it 10 years? We are already feeling the change here at Wesmac, which also builds lots of lobster boats. Commercial lobstermen have had some banner years, but if you don’t know if your livelihood will be around much longer, you don’t invest in a nicer, newer boat.

It’s been good for so long because the fishermen, in conjunction with the state, have protected the resource. We’ve done things right. And now these outside sources . . . to come here and shut down the lobster fishery because of right whales is wrong. No one wants to harm whales.

Jason Joyce and his son Andrew, from Swans Island, are working with these excellent videos to protect a multi-generational fishery and their families – eight generations for Jason. They are passionate about it. When you threaten someone’s livelihood, it gets emotional. Especially a heritage-type lifestyle that your family has invested in for generations. Maine fishermen are doing a good job getting the people to open their eyes and look at the real science and reality. Twenty years of documented science show no right whale deaths from the Maine lobster fishery. Our opponents want to save whales. We do, too.

Tim: Is your husband a good fisherman?

Linda: Oh yeah. He grew up like I did, down in Harpswell. His dad was a coastal warden [fisheries warden today] and he dug for clams and fished for lobster to help pay for school. He knows the game.

Tim: What is your favorite fishing?

Linda: My favorite fishing is definitely swordfishing. I don’t love being at sea for 30 days, and I’m not swordfishing anymore, but it’s near and dear to me. It’s an exciting fishery. Every trip is a huge adventure. The fish themselves are beautiful, so colorful. And, you know, this long bill, it’s like a unicorn.

There’s a lot more to catching a swordfish than a lobster; the lobster grounds don’t move, while you must follow the Gulf Stream up to the Labrador Current to catch swordfish. The two bodies of water come together east of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. The temperature gradient, the constantly changing current in flux – there’s just more to it, more of a challenge, but lots of fun when you’re catching.

Tim: A quote from your book “Seaworthy”: “At sea, it’s more a feeling than it is a place.” Want to expand on that thought?

Linda: Tough to articulate. It’s the blood on the deck. It’s filling the hold on the boat, the thrill of the fishing, the sheer optimism of fishing, the next hook, trap, day, season, moon change, the tide, that there’s always a reason to hope. It is all what I really love about the life I’ve chosen. This outlook bleeds into every aspect of my life: I’m an eternal optimist.

Tim: Tell me more about your current boats.

Linda: Earnest is a 41-foot wooden lobsterboat named for the adjective. It’s a great work platform, whether I’m pulling traps in Union River Bay or over by Long Island, or doing my six-pack charters. It’s a great boat, but I covet a 46-foot Wesmac that would be faster and take me easier to the tuna fishing grounds offshore. I used to camp out on Earnest, sleeping on the deck, but not anymore.

My other boat is a 56-foot Wesmac custom cruiser bought used. It is too much boat, too big and too nice for chartering, with two beautiful staterooms, showers and satin-cherry finishes. It is for sale, so I can get a 46-Wesmac. This year, we are also operating the 42-foot Downeast hull Asticou, out of Northeast Harbor, with our charterboat tours. My son-in-law Dan will be the primary captain on that boat.

Tim: What would you tell a young person about fishing, going to sea?

Linda: Any young person, if they are passionate, should pursue it. And you will need to work at it. Don’t do it for the money, because you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment. If you are doing it because you love it, you will become successful. Do what you love.

Tim: What’s next for Linda Greenlaw Wessel?

Linda: I would like to play on the LPGA golf tour, but that’s a long shot. Don’t know what’s next; could write another book, but I don’t really like writing. I have a lot to say but I don’t like the process (politics), the grinding it out. I love to work, but that work is too dirty. The television opportunity came to me. The book deals came to me. I’m not sitting around waiting, I’ve got plenty to do, but I’m always open to opportunities. Once you open the door of opportunity, that means work – and I like to work.

I love to cook. In the winter I like to cross-country ski, love to Nordic skate, and I’ve taken up pickleball and really enjoy the social aspect. The boats are in the water. There’s lots to do. Summer is looking very busy. Gotta go to work.

Tim Plouff and his wife, Kathryn, the navigator, live lakeside in Otis, Maine, 30 minutes from Acadia, from which they trailer-boat up and down the Maine coast with their 2000 Sea Ray 21-foot express cruiser Tegoak.