ORANGE BEACH, Ala., — Capt. B.J. Roberts loves sailing. Even more, he loves sailing the Daedalus.

When he’s behind the wheel of “the oldest charter sailing business on the Gulf Coast,” deck full of passengers, a thousand feet of sail in the wind, he’s a man possessed.

“I came down about six or seven years ago as a tourist,” he said. “The very next day after my first trip, I was there to go again. I’d  stick around afterward and I would help put up the lines and the sails. I’d come down and ride every chance I could. I’d deckhand and not get paid.

“I just loved being on the boat.”

He gushes on end about his 50-foot, 19-ton, behemoth, and then gushes about how nimble and fast she can be under full sail.

“She sits proud in the water,” he says. He is also the only “live-aboard” captain in the boat’s history.

But even as he continues his narrative about learning to love sailing in Boy Scouts, about the look first-time passengers get when she leans into the wind and passengers who sailed on the Daedalus as children and are back with their children, the conversation gets deeper.

And a bit darker.

Much like digging deeper into the sugar-white sands of Gulf Coast beaches and still finding oil lingering beneath after repeated “cleanings.”

“It’s about survival now,” Capt. B.J. says. “And somehow, me and the Daedalus are going to survive.”

This journey for Roberts began with the quest for a sailing patch in Boy Scouts.

“I was never into boats as a kid,” he said. “I didn’t fish, I didn’t ski, I didn’t want to jetski. It was about getting a patch.”

Then it became much more for him.

“When I sailed the first time and the boat  took off under sail, I was hooked,” he said. “Harnessing the wind. It’s a sense of freedom. In thisboat, I can go anywhere in the world. That’s a heck of a feeling of freedom.”

After years of a long-distance love affair with the boat, Roberts, then a veteran law enforcement  officer from Atlanta, got word the current owner was retiring and moving another boat he lived on to the Caribbean.

“He was celebrating his birthday and his wife’s retirement and I called and said ‘I got a surprise for you. I want to buy the Daedalus’” Roberts said. “I want to run the charter. He said ‘That’s where you belong.’”

Roberts began to plan and scheme in earnest to make a go of his new business venture and his love of sailing and his new home.

“Originally I came down to run it like a business, do something I enjoy,” he said. “I had a business plan and everything laid out for Daedalus. I took everything I’d had, money I’d saved, things I owned and decided to put everything on the line.”

During his first season, he lived and worked on the boat and put the profits back into improvements.

“First season running the boat, you realize everything on the boat is expensive,” he said. “I wasn’t going to let (Daedalus) do without and gave up the comforts of home so if (Daedalus) needed anything, she would get it.”

He took pride in the fact that he offers some of the most economical sail tours around and relished his repeat customers who had been sailing on Daedalus for years.

“I’ve had women come aboard the boat and say ‘I used to  ride on this boat when I was a little girl’ and would have pictures of themselves on the boat,” he said.

Those happy memories of that first season faded quickly as Roberts began preparing for his second charter season.

“Things changed with that oil,” he said. “Sure I want to make money, but now it’s survival.

“This my home. I love that boat. My home is infected. It’s driving away my customers, the people that have come back year to year to sail the Daedalus. This BP oil spill crap is taking that all away from me.”

It’s a problem he sees all up and down the dock at Bear Point Marina.

“All the people around me around me are having trouble paying bills, their rent, slip fees,” he said. “They are losing their way of life, the way they make money.”

To make ends meet, Roberts has been working as a captain on a neighbor’s boat helping in the oil spill cleanup.

He has no regrets about giving it all up and coming to live his dream, one he thinks will turn around.

“It helps and it hurts that I just didn’t buy a boat, I bought a legacy,” he said. “A legacy of people bringing their kids up sailing on the Daedalus.”

Just then his business phone rang.

“Sail the Daedalus, Capt. B.J.,” he said. “We are sailing, yes sir and I am glad you called. Yes, sir. Well, a lot of what you are hearing about the oil spill and stuff, most if it’s not true. It’s as pretty now as it’s ever been.”

The customer decided to come in for a sunset cruise aboad the Daedalus.

Editor’s note: Capt. B.J. says the Daedalus’ birthday is Aug. 23 and public is invited to come aboard and take pictures to celebrate.