The Flotilla Cast - Jim Westfield

"Catching a look at himself in the mirror, Jim saw a kid who was about average height but with a deepening chest. Blonde hair that was crew-cut-short and eyes that were either blue or grey depending on the light. Jim wasn’t built to be a surfer and he wasn’t hitting the weights enough to let his arms and legs fill out like they should. In short, Jim was like just about every other teenage kid who hasn’t quite grown into his body."

Jim Westfield is a teenager at the crossroads – he can either continue down the path of alcohol and drugs or he can shape up and take his first steps toward becoming a man. He wasn’t getting that kind of help on shore but out here on the ocean where everyone does a grown man’s day of work, the help is there and usually in the form of his estranged father or any number of adults who found the structure of shore life too restrictive for their taste.

Jim’s experiences don’t change the fact that he wants to do the right thing and senses that he’s capable of more than getting drunk or high without the slightest idea about how to go about it. He gets frustrated and bitter, he screws up and acts out but unlike the soft and easy consequences he’s enjoyed back on land the Colony and the sea will provide the most harsh and direct wake-up call of all.