Post #50: ‘Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay’ for 6 weeks (Part 2)

Wednesday, January 13, 2020

Sarah’s drive down from DC was supposed to take 12 hours.  It turned into a 2-day adventure since the car wouldn’t start again after she bought gas in the teeming metropolis of Walterboro, SC, population 5,477. A friendly fellow traveler tried to jump start the car but the problem wasn’t a dead battery. Instead, it appeared to be a rusted out starter that would need replacement.  It being a Sunday and South Carolina, no service stations were open nearby so David got on the phone and tried to track down the needed part from a local auto parts supplier, hoping that would speed the process along once a repair service could be contacted Monday morning.  God bless Angie at AutoZone who ordered the part for delivery by 10 a.m. Monday and recommended John at Advantage Towing for the repair. She even gave John’s cell phone number to David. Meanwhile Sarah checked into a motel across the street from the gas station, carried all her belongings there (a number of people offered to help—this is the South, after all) and hoped for a better day on Monday.

David called Advantage Towing at 8 a.m. on the nose.  He quite obviously woke John out of a sound sleep. Rather groggily, John asked, “Didn’t Angie tell you we’re closed on Sunday and Monday?” (Oh, dear, not a good way to start the conversation.) “So, all right, is this an emergency?” he asked resignedly. David gulped, “Ah, yes, sort of,” and proceeded to tell him the situation. Donning that renowned Southern air of chivalry, John assured us “Now, don’t ya’ll worry folks, we’ll take care of your girl and get her back home to you soon’s we can.  Just give me a while to shower and have my coffee and I’ll be back in touch.” (And that’s when you know you’re not in Massachusetts any more, ha ha!)

When the repair was completed, John picked up Sarah at the motel in his Ford truck, complete with gun rack and Trump stickers and drove her (“down roads with no street signs into a dense forest—Mom, I thought, where on earth is this guy taking me???”) to his “shop”  which was next to his personal junkyard or old cars and rusted equipment surrounded by chain link and electric fences—right out of an episode of Ozark. But the repairs were successful and she set off again down Rte. 95, bound for Florida.  We were SO glad to see her!

I think Sarah’s initial vision of living for a few weeks in Florida included lots of sunshine, gently swaying palm trees, quiet evenings enjoying dinner in the cockpit of the boat and warm days at the beach. 

Well, at least there was sunshine.

She did try to work from the boat the first week she was here.  One morning she was on a conference call with the World Bank’s World Director for Land Use and Disaster Relief.  She thought there would be many people on the call and that she’d be OK just listening out on the dock (while looking for dolphins) but it turned out there were only 6 participants.  Then the Director asked that everyone turn on their video. She quickly came back to the boat so it would look more professional.  With all the gauges and switches that surround our chart table (her desk), someone texted her from the Philippines during the call—“Are you on a submarine???” 

We soon got down to the serious business of Christmas preparations.  David and Sarah figured out how to rig lights up and down the mast. We felt very festive with all our decorations!

She and I had a fun time making and decorating Christmas cookies to share with others at the marina.  She also built a gingerbread house covered in candy, a long-standing Antos holiday tradition. 

Christmas morning was downright cold in the boat.  It had gotten down to 40 degrees overnight which doesn’t sound bad except we are basically living in an uninsulated tin can. We have a small space heater but Sarah, dressed in her down coat, suggested we needed a wood fire to really warm things up. David and I were quite surprised to realize that she meant it:

Daytime temperatures the week between Christmas and New Year’s slowly climbed from the 50’s up to 80.  Now that we had the use of a car, we took off for the beach on the warm days, burying our noses in the books we had given each other as gifts. Somebody even made a sand snowman!  All in all, a most unusual Christmas but we felt blessed to spend it together.