Meet Chris Medinger of The Blue Moon Cruises in Marina Del Rey

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Medinger.

Chris, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 2003, my apartment in Marina Del Rey was remodeled and, on a YMCA salary, I was unable to afford to stay there. In order to stay in near the beach, I decided to try living on a boat. Within only a few weeks of looking, I fell in love with The Blue Moon, a beautiful trawler (fishing style boat) with wooden trim. I was 23 at the time and my dock neighbors all called me junior and took me under their wing. The oldest neighbor, Captain Ed, told me that the boat had not been regularly used for 12 years and I had a lot of work to do.

It took a few years, but with their help, I had fixed The Blue Moon up and had learned a lot more than I expected about boats. During this time I became an elementary school teacher at a Charter School, and I was taking my friends out on weekends and getting comfortable at the helm. Soon I decided to enroll in a course to become a Coast Guard Captain. I also took some summer jobs with the Catalina Express and some other charter boats to gain experience, and by the spring of 2005, I had my captain’s license, a website, and an LLC.

In taking many trips with friends around the LA basin and Catalina, I had begun to pick up the patterns of dolphin migrations in the area. I realized that this was what got most people excited. There was no better experience than leaning over the bow of the boat and watching a school of dolphins play in the wake of the boat.

I experimented with Living Social and Group On to get started but soon realized that was too much to maintain on my own as a teacher. I spent the next 8 years building a reputation from word of mouth and google and focused on filling up my summer break from school with dolphin cruises.

I loved the social aspect of taking these charters. Each trip was a glimpse into these people’s lives. Some were bachelor parties, some were funerals, and everything in between. I have so many stories and connections I have made through these charters that I won’t share here. Eventually, I began using the boat to raise money for my classroom’s field trips, and rewarding students with trips to see dolphins. Soon I began marketing the Blue Moon experience to families as an educational experience in marine biology.

Then, in 2014, I was given the opportunity to found my own charter school (Everest Value School in Korea town). The work took to recruit students and hire teachers took me away from the Blue Moon. I hired captains through agencies to keep up with demand, but the customer experience wasn’t the same. Now in 2016, with the school much more under control (and appropriately staffed), I am able to return to spending my weekends chartering on the Pacific again. I am looking to hire a few close friends to form a team of captains and begin marketing the Blue Moon and expand the customer base.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The most memorable struggles have been in mechanics. I have had a small child throw a line of the boat and it wraps the propeller, snap the shaft and almost sink us. I have had the engine suck up a plastic bag into the cooling mechanism and overheat the engine (filling the bilge with boiling salt water) as we wash back toward the rocks.

The least memorable struggles have been in government regulations. We had to get Coast Guard certified and inspected, LA county certified and pay fees to the state, city, county and who knows. The most ridiculous was the county required us to get a “Water Taxi Operators Licence” which required us to present in front of a tribunal of councilmen and women. I am lucky to have a wife who knows how to organize a binder.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with The Blue Moon Cruises – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
The Blue Moon is about bringing people to the ocean life as opposed to something like Sea World where everything is in captivity. As a teacher and principal, I am very interested in teaching the next generation about our planet and what we can do to protect it.

Our specialty is the family cruise. You bring your picnic supplies and plug your phone into our speakers. The boat is yours. We can stop and go swimming. We can go way out and look for whales. I like to listen to what the customer envisions.

I am most proud of being cast as the hero’s boat in the movie Super Shark (on Sci-Fi channel). The boat has been in photo shoots and commercials as well. That is a lot of fun!

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I would love to get a few trusted captains to help me meet the demand of a new marketing campaign. My wife is researching how to best use online advertising and yelp and my sister has helped redo the website to where customers can post dolphin movies using the hashtag #bluemooncruising. My job as a principal can be pretty overwhelming and until I can build that team, we are just taking the cruises from customers who find us.

Pricing:

• 275 for the first hour and 175 for each additional hour (12 people max)
• Minimum 3 hours for dolphins
• Film rentals available

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thebluemoon.us
• Phone: 4242721954
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: aboard_the_bluemoon
• Facebook: @BlueMoonDolphinCruises
• Yelp: The Blue Moon Dolphin Cruise