ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — (Editor's note: Capt. Mark Robinson has long provided vivid images and insight into life on 'Pleasure Island' and the waters surrounding it. His feature 'Who's on the Island?' appears in our monthly Beachin' magazine. An inadvertent file transfer issue caused omission in the new July edition. Here's Robinson's regular 'Island' feature in its entirety, which we'll continue to provide for our online readers every month.)

If you’ve ever wanted to chase a rainbow, and/or follow a dream, you just need to ask Captain Bill Mitchell how to do it.   He was born in Madison Wisconsin.  His parents were professionals, and very involved in their own lives. His mom was secretary to the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, and his dad was a System’s analyst/efficiency expert for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Wisconsin.  Bill had been left to his own devices and quickly learned that if “anything was going to happen in his life, that HE would have to make it happen.” He became self reliant.

As a youngster he started with a paper route (had the largest in Madison). And he gradually did lots of different jobs after school.  He worked as waiter and bus boy, earning enough to buy a tractor.  With it the plowed snow, did some landscaping, and bartended on the side before he was old enough to drink.  He tells of how when someone came in the little local bar whom nobody knew, he would conveniently disappear, and one of the locals would step up to the bar and tend until the stranger left.

After high school, he got involved with a biblical research center thru a young lady he took a shine to, who was also involved with the center.  After some time with the center, he rededicated his life to God, going out teaching and sharing.  Eventually he ended up in Dallas and then decided to attended college, The Way College of Emporia (Kansas) where he was ordained when graduating with a Theology degree. 

"Go and explore."

After graduation, he married, and went to work for the ministry full time, running their printing/publishing operations in Ohio.  He and his wife spent 7 years there, but he had the bug to get out and travel; it was that gypsy spirit that says "go and explore". 

Before work, every morning around 5:30, some friends and he had been practicing barefoot waterskiing.  They’d do that before going to work. Bill got to where he was competing, and he started winning competitions.  He finally left the active part of the ministry, and took a job in Orlando, Florida, as a water-ski rep.   

Though now he was not working for pay with the church, Mitchell stayed involved. He taught bible studies, did fellowships in the Orlando area until it came to pass that he felt his beliefs and the beliefs of the church had taken different paths. The biblical research operation fell apart.  The man who had started it died, and the new people seemed to be more interested in making money then teaching the word. 

Bill severed ties with The Way organization, but his wife didn’t.  As a result, they drifted apart and ended up divorcing after 13 years of marriage.  He was 37 years old.  He pursued a career as a professional water skier and competed in the PRO-AM tour.  While doing that, he made his living as a ski company rep for Casad, and Straight Line Water Sports.   He was the top rep in sales but the company decided he was making too much money, and let him go. 

The Island 'Rescue'

Having time on his hands and the itch to travel, Mitchell got a limited Captain’s license, and started Captaining private boats in the Bahamas.  While involved captaining yachts in the Bahamas, a man contacted him with a problem, and wanted Bill’s help. The man had full custody of his son, but his estranged wife had taken the boy and fled to an Island country. This man wanted help getting his son back thinking they could escape with him by boat. 

They contacted mercenaries, retired Special Forces men, Army Rangers and Navy Seals, and came up with a plan to get the boy back.  Bill was put in charge of the boats that would be used in the operation.  The boat part involved several high speed water craft.  The operation was covert and their action, though not sanctioned, would not be a problem once the boy was back in the U.S. The rescue attempt would involve jail time if caught in the Island country. 

The operation was high stress, and after a couple years and several attempts to bring the boy back, Bill decided to cut and run.   He didn’t want to go to jail if caught, and Bill realized the father was more into the drama and excitement of the operation than he was into actually getting the boy back.  The father lived on Ono Island at the time, and while working for him, Mitchell came to our area often.  Bill even lived here for a year while planning some of the ops. 

Bill loved the area, so after breaking away from working for the man, he came back here to live. 

The Island-Life . . . Permanently! (for love of dolphins)

He went to work for a Jet Ski company here, and after a year bought the company, LA Water sports.  He rented jet skis, and after about 5 years ended up with over 30 boats, on eight locations on the Island. Now he was into Parasail’s (4), jet skis (16), pontoon boats, and rental boats.  Due to some bad business deals, he ended up closing down the company.   He got rid of everything except for one dolphin cruise boat, and Bill himself was taking the boat out on the cruises. 

He again started making money and bought a building lot on the bay next to where he was renting.  Bill’s thing is to work hard and keep things safe.

In the winter he had a crew and they built docks and bulkheads.   Handy with construction and working with tools, he does his own maintenance in his business and does whatever is necessary to maintain the boats in a safe and seaworthy condition.   As the business built up, he realized he needed to know more about the dolphins, so he contacted the Dolphin Research Center (DRC) in the Florida Keys, and asked if he could come down and volunteer. 

It turned into a yearly thing where he would go volunteer, and at the same time learn about the dolphins.  He took classes from the Research Center while helping build piers, or do whatever else they needed. After Hurricane Wilma, Bill brought his crew to the Research Center and rebuilt the piers damaged by the hurricane.  It’s a big facility whose first priority was the dolphins, and not the money.  If they had a show, and the dolphins didn’t want to perform, they canceled the show. They didn’t make them perform. The dolphins have the intelligence of an eight year old child, and they didn’t want to stress them out. Dolphins were happy in the Center. 

Because of what Bill learned at the DRC, he brought his knowledge back to Alabama and Bill’s dolphin cruises moved toward education as well as entertainment.  If people wanted to talk about the physiology and anatomy of a dolphin, Bill could do that.  He said some groups did, and some just wanted to be entertained, and that was o.k.  If the group wanted to get into serious learning about dolphins, Bill was ready for that also.  Bill says his clientele leaned more toward the education side of the trip, still entertaining but also a learning experience. 

Bill calls his company Cetacean Cruises… [CETACEAN is the biological order of whales, dolphins, and proposes.] I asked him the difference between a dolphin and a porpoise.  He said they are distinguished by their teeth.  A porpoise has a conical tooth and a dolphin has a spade shaped tooth.  There are also anatomical differences.  A porpoise has to turn his whole body to turn, where a dolphin can turn his head.  Basically if you saw what you thought was a dolphin, and he had a short snout, and is a little smaller he’s probably a porpoise. 

In the Bay they are all bottle nose dolphins.  Out in the Gulf, off shore, you may see a porpoise.  Proposes travel huge distances, but dolphins don’t.  Dolphins rarely travel over 10 miles from where they were born.  Over half the dolphins in our area are named.  You can go online and you can see their location.  Then names of the dolphins are official and registered with the Federal Government. 

Because of Bill’s training, he told me he was considered the only boat that was “Dolphin Smart”.  The NOAA/SeaGrant program was established to make other tour operators Dolphin Smart.  A meeting was held, and 20 operators showed up. Only Bill’s boat received the rating.  It involved going slow near the dolphins, and doing other things that made it safe for the dolphins. 

During the oil spill, Bill was asked by NOAA to be the only dolphin health assessment boat.  Bill’s boat carried around NOAA personnel, scientists, vets, and other dolphin specialists, and again he took advantage of the opportunity to learn even more about dolphins. They did a lot of fin identifications.  When Dolphins were washing ashore at that time, it needs to be noted that this started about 3 months before the oil spill, so to say that the oil spill caused the deaths is inaccurate . . . though the spill may have exacerbated the deaths.

Now the Dolphin Island Sea Lab is handling strandings and better records are being kept. 

Taking the money he made, Bill bought a hull of a boat.  He tore it apart, hired a ship welder full time for a couple months, and worked on the boat night and day.  He lengthened the hull, and mounted outboards, and eventually built himself a new dolphin cruise boat.  Bill did the design work working with the USCG, and a marine architect named Andrew Mundt, and rebuilt it for shallow water use to carry 49 passengers. It took over two years and finally was approved a couple months ago.  It vessel is now is an integral part of the business.

In 2008 Bill bought a catamaran sailboat …..After a few months, some friends and Bill pulled up anchor and went to the Caribbean. They were gone for two and a half months.  Bill wrote several books about the trip, and the adventures they had.  Plans now are to sell the cat, and concentrate on the Dolphin cruise boats.  Main problem with the cat is that it drew too much water, and dredging is not an option.

Five years ago, a lady named Sheryl came on a dolphin cruise, and she was/is beautiful.  Bill had been alone long enough and was ready to meet someone special.  He asked her out.  She was visiting from Michigan.  They wrote, kept in touch, and a year later married over on Byrd Island.   

As a sales rep, and as a professional water skier, Bill has traveled all over, but there was no hesitation in his saying “I love it here!  The way people act; the ‘small town-big beach’ feeling is contagious. It’s that down home country feel to a beach town.  I love the lack of pretentiousness.  My future plans are to stay ON THE ISLAND.”

And Bill, we’re fortunate to have you here with us.  Thank you for what you add to THE ISLAND, and for sharing your remarkable life with us.