A sailor shares his journey on and off the water

By Channing Heiss

Contributor

Bluffton native Robert “Roby” Eric Breger, known to many as Captain Roby, has developed strong passions over his life.

His love for life on the local waters started basically at birth. “I’ve been on a boat since I was a baby in a bassinette,” he says. Getting his first boating license as a young boy, Captain Roby now holds a 50-ton US Coast Guard Master’s license with towing and sailing endorsements. He narrates dolphin watching tours and other sailing excursions in the waters around Hilton Head for several companies and provides other boating related services. He loves to talk about these exciting adventures on his life’s journey, whether one on one or through his website and Facebook posts.

He is also very willing and dedicated to talking about times when the journey was not so smooth.

Breger’s sailing, along with a more recent enthusiasm for disc golf, which led him to become co-founder of a club on Hilton Head, played a significant role in getting him where he is now, at home on his 41-foot boat Amarok docked at Hilton Head and “living my best life” as he passes the milestone five-year anniversary of his sobriety. Disc golf, also known as Frisbee golf, provided a welcome distraction during the pandemic and eventually gave him an opportunity to build more varied groups of friends that have helped him keep moving in a positive direction. “It became a new obsession,” he says. He became so enthusiastic about the sport that he is working to develop local venues for this hybrid brand of golf. Among several current venues is the Island Rec Center.

Breger welcomes the chance to talk about his experiences out of a desire to help others, and he encourages people to get in touch with him if they have a problem or don’t know if they do.

He explains that, while he is not proud of who he was, he is most definitely proud of the progress he has made on a journey that began in his teens. He also shares credit with people who both held him accountable and gave him second chances.

In between posting entertaining photos and videos of his sea excursions, one of several ventures, he posts updates about his sobriety. Of his content, he says, “It gives people joy when I post.”

“More than anything, I want to broadcast a message of hope.”

Breger says everyone going through this is different. For him, it was an epiphany at a recovery meeting.

“One day, it clicked. I realized I didn’t like who I was. Everyone around me was doing better. I had been sort of doing a ‘fake it till you make it,’” Breger said.

“I took another look at this recovery program and said, let’s try this.” Through the program, he says he learned you have to get to the point where you not only see the problem but will do anything to fix it. “Where I am now, I would never be if I hadn’t taken that first step.”

A key piece of advice he received along the way was to return to his passions. And so, he has, continuing to tell the stories of our local seas, developing a “five-year plan” to sail down among tropical islands, and, of course, getting in a few rounds of Frisbee golf along the way.

Channing Heiss is a freelance writer and a member of the Beaufort County disAbilities Coalition.