13 February 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3013: not a real captain

“Well, of course having Captain Morgan on board and taking his orders was going to get a yacht into trouble – he's not a real captain, he just plays one on TV.”

“Ain't it the truth, Glendella, ain't it the truth.”

Ten-year-old Glendella Ludlow and eight-year-old Gracie Trent were making the best sense they could of a local story that had made the news: someone's yacht had come to grief on Lake Esmeralda, and the thing that was noted upon rescuing the survivors was the brand of rum they had on board. Glendella and Gracie had missed that detail … but not completely.

“When you really need to get there, you gotta have real military people – they just shoulda called Capt. Musashi Miyamoto out at the Veteran's Lodge before he got on Zoom for the soda sale meeting today,” Gracie said. “Ain't no way he's going to steer you up onto shore and have your boat fall over – he's a real Navy veteran captain.”

“But I think people go for the flashiness of TV,” Glendella said. “I mean, Upgrade Papa is a Army veteran captain, and I think he could do better than that. But real captains don't have to dress up as pirates any more – that's so 18th century.”

“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said, “and you know Grandma Jubilee was just talking to Pop-Pop and Grandma Velma about how people are trying to move forward while looking backwards. The 18th century is back there somewhere.”

“Gracie, that's it – that's what Captain Morgan told those people to do,” Glendella said. “That's how it happens – so, he's looking backwards toward the stern and all that lake back there and ordered full steam ahead thinking the ship was going toward what he was seeing.”

“Which is how they ended up driving up onto the shore like they were a truck instead of a yacht – makes sense,” Gracie said. “I wonder if Captain Morgan was getting to into his role – you know pirates are supposed to love rum.”

“That would explain a lot,” Glendella said. “Captain Morgan I know was at a party around here and I heard that he brought some coconut rum that was really good, but Cousin Kipling definitely got carried away and was out dancing in the fountain with a couple of women.”

“Captain Morgan might just be a bad influence,” Gracie said. “Sometimes fame goes to people's head, and then there they are driving ships backwards on to shore and falling over. Capt. Miyamoto and Capt. Ludlow would never.”

“Never,” Glendella said, “and it's real bad when an Army captain can show you up on a boat situation.”

“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said. “People gotta start remembering TV ain't real – just because you are a captain on TV doesn't mean you know what you are doing in real life -- especially if you are getting too much into the rum and stuff!”