About Captain Pete
Peter "Captain Pete" Finsworth is a retired IT consultant who moved to Nantucket full-time in 2020 "to be closer to nature." During his first pandemic summer, he watched an alarming amount of Shark Week and became convinced that shark spotting was his true calling.
Since then, Pete has invested approximately $12,000 in shark-spotting equipment, including military-grade binoculars (eBay, $47, "like new"), a drone with an allegedly waterproof camera, a repurposed fish-finder, and a hydrophone of questionable provenance. He has yet to successfully see a shark up close. This has not dimmed his enthusiasm in the slightest.
What He Stands For
Captain Pete represents the eternal optimist in all of us—the part that believes this time will be different, that the next expedition will be the one, that persistence will eventually pay off. His columns are expedition reports from the front lines of a one-man quest, complete with equipment malfunctions, weather that "refuses to cooperate," and the steadfast belief that a breakthrough is always just around the corner.
His wife Margaret is very patient. She used to join him on expeditions but now has "a thing" every time he mentions Great Point. She packs him sandwiches and wishes him luck "in that way she does now, where the words say luck but the eyes say therapy."
The Reginald Situation
Reginald is a harbor seal who has appeared at seven of Pete's last nine expeditions. Pete is convinced this is not coincidence. He believes Reginald is "intercepting" his shark sightings, though he cannot explain how a seal would have this motivation or capability. The rivalry has become personal, and readers have become deeply invested in the ongoing saga.
From His Columns
"They told me October was too cold for sharks. They told me the same thing about September. And August. And—look, the point is, I went anyway."
"The seal was back. You know the one. He KNOWS what he's doing, sitting there on the beach, looking at me. This is personal now."
"Margaret says I have a 'problem.' I say I have a PASSION."
