Press "Enter" to skip to content

A life on the water for Mathews native

Nearly a decade after his retirement as captain and pilot on an articulated tug/barge for a major oil company and well into working full time at his second occupation as a waterman, J.C. Hudgins of Mathews has begun yet another career—as a tour guide.

Hudgins takes groups of up to six people at a time out on his Chesapeake Bay deadrise, the Risky Business II, and gives them a taste of what it’s like to be a working waterman. His guests can pull crab pots, hand scrape for oysters, taste the fresh seafood they catch, learn a bit about the history of Mathews County, and enjoy the scenic beauty of the Chesapeake Bay, all in one trip. They can even visit an aquaculture operation on Gwynn’s Island or, when the season is right, watch a crab shedding operation right in Hudgins’s backyard.

The tours are part of an initiative called Virginia Watermen’s Heritage Tours launched through the collaborative efforts of Gloucester-based Chesapeake Environmental Communicat...

To view the rest of this article, you must log in. If you do not have an account with us, please subscribe here.