KINGSTON — Dick Nowak is casting his last line this week as owner of Kingston Nautical Supply.

The fisherman who has owned the store for the past decade in downtown Kingston has decided to retire and pursue other interests, such as traveling the world.

This change in lifestyle kicked off this week with a liquidation sale that will continue until everything is gone. The store was closed May 17 and 18 so he, his partner Karen Ross, friend and professional liquidator Dwight McCarty and other friends could mark down the merchandise. Neon colored signs went up in the windows last weekend, advertising the news.

“After 10 years of running this business, we decided it was time to retire,” Nowak said.

“It’s a good time to sell the stuff,” Ross added, noting it will be easier to sell the fishing and boating equipment now rather than in the fall.

If people come in and ask why he wants to retire, Nowak said he will simply point to a picture of him standing barefoot on an empty beach holding a 25- pound fish he had just caught in Barra de Potosi, 30 miles south of Zihuatenejo, Mexico.

Nowak said some of the things he wants to pursue during retirement include more world travel. Ross and Nowak are known locally for their annual month-long trips to Mexico in the winter but want to be able to get away more often to places like South or Central America and Europe.

“It’s not good to just close the store for three days,” Ross said. “We want to do more traveling.”

Nowak’s favorite memories of the store are the relationships he built with his customers, how visitors would ask about the antique lures he had on the wall above the sales counter or about Pepé, the green Amazon parrot that accompanied him at the store.

He also enjoyed working with the community, even if their inquiries weren’t always about boating or fishing.

“It seemed when everyone had a problem, they would come and look for Karen,” he said with a laugh.

Ross said she’s taking the closure harder than Nowak, as it served a real need in the community, especially for the boaters and fishermen who would pass through town. She said she hopes the new renters (Nowak and Ross own the building and will lease the space) start up a convenience store/nautical shop that will provide the same sort of services Kingston Nautical Supply did and add more food staples.

“That’s what we’d love to see happen here,” she said.

While Nowak will retire, Ross said she will stay with John L. Scott as an associate broker.