With very full and perfectly satisfied bellies we all waddled to a bus stop where we waited for bus 79.  If You didn’t know any better, you would have thought Applebee’s was the greatest gourmet restaurant in the world.  …and bus 79?…  incredible, just envision this: a driver stops right there in front of us… Just for us… and the people in the bus?… Not a single one reacting to the fact we just delayed their trip.  What amazing patience and kindness.  …Lights, the bus had lights all over the inside, and heat!… In Aleph Tav we have to monitor our lights and heat, but not on bus 79.  Light and heat just kept coming…

There was a time when I would have driven past a lonely person shivering at a bus stop and not given it a single thought, other then perhaps being frustrated that the girl at Dunkin Donuts put too much cream cheese on my bagel and forgot to give me napkins.  A time where I would not have considered eating at Applebee’s if it were the last restaurant on earth.  Yet I cannot fully express how truly blessed I felt as the bus drove us to our stop.  It is amazing how much you begin to treasure the least of things when all you have is the least of things.

We arrived at Aleph Tav ready for a perfect night’s sleep.    In fact, we were ready for an entire weekend of rest, as we would have to wait until Monday for Navi to be pulled out of the water.

Before turning in, I checked on her one last time.  Navi sat there floating barely above the water line, held afloat only by her inflatable tubes.  Speaking of inflatable tubes; boy was I glad the repair we did on these tubes before our departure, was successful.  I didn’t think it would have been possible to fix some twenty stab wounds made by a very angry ex wife, but the repair held perfectly well; enough to keep the boat from sinking.

…Ok, I know; “stab wounds, angry ex wife…” How in the world does that fit into the story?…  Well, it appears we have some down time for a couple of days, so I have time to share.

It was a hot summer day, and I had been working since 4:30 am to remove Aleph Tav’s old, scratched, sun cracked windows.  I had been putting this project off as much as possible because of how difficult it is to remove any thing attached with a caulking adhesive called 5200.

With a heavy duty grinder, goggles, and respirator mask, I ground out the 5200 for hours, covering everything with a thick layer of the old musty rubbery grime.  With all the noise, I was unaware that a man was knocking on one of the windows, so I continued grinding.    But the man was very persistent.  I stopped to see what he wanted.  He had been watching all I had done on Aleph Tav for months and wanted to compliment the work.

When I mentioned what I was going to use the boat for, he asked: “Do you want a bigger boat?”

“Sure!…” I responded without giving it much thought.

This man bought, fixed and resold boats for a living.  He knew of a boat that was being disputed over at a nearby marina, and thought perhaps the owner would donate it for our work.  I went to see the boat.  It was a 60ft yacht, one of three specially made for National Geographic.  The yacht had had a fire, and while being repaired, new owners took over the marina.  When the new owners did not honor the former repair contract, a feud ensued.  Sure enough, when I showed up and shared the work we have done in Haiti, both parties saw it as a beneficial way out, and within one week, we were owners of a $1.2 mil yacht.

Only one small problem; the repair bill being disputed was $350,000…  Even after cutting every corner I could think of, it would cost us at least half of that, in order for the boat to be seaworthy and operational.  But how do you raise $150,000 to fix a boat, when you can buy a perfectly good boat for one third that price?…

We held on to “Arbela” as long as we were able to, but at a mooring cost of $900 per month, we knew our time was running out.  We were prepared to tow her to Florida, but unexpected changes in our plans made that option impossible due to the fact we would be traveling in the winter.  With three weeks left, I desperately tried to come up with a way to salvage as much as I could from this amazing gift with no success.  I felt like the man in the story “The old man in the sea”…  an old man who spent days caching a huge prize fish, only to have sharks devour it on his way home.

Left with no options, I returned to the man who flipped boats…  He told me he would like to help, but that it would be nearly impossible to get anything out of that type of boat in such little time.  Simply put, people who have the money to get a 1.2 million dollar yacht, are not looking for fixer uppers, and every one else, would not be able to afford it, even if they wanted it.

The only thing the man had to offer was a Novurania in trade.    Only a couple small problems…  As I walked with the man to see the boat, I noticed countless slits into the deflated tubes.  “It’s my ex wife…” The man explained, “She’s a raving lunatic!!!  She thinks I was taking broads on joy rides with this thing, so she tried to kill it… She’s a psycho!!!  Oh yeah, and the motor is not running, but this is a Novurania, once it’s fixed it will be a great boat.”

“…well, were you bringing “broads” for joy rides on this boat?” I asked.

“That’s no reason to stab a boat to death! This is a Novurania… Broads dig this thing, she’s just a psycho!!!” The man protested.

And there you have it, “The rest of the story” as Paul Harvey once said.

We named her Navi and began praying for help to have her repaired.
After receiving a very timely love offering, we were able to repair the stab wounds, and install a new motor with only ten hours of use… Little did I know this motor would only have a ten hour life span, as it now sat submerged in frozen salt water for days.

On Monday morning, as Navi was lifted out of the water, we all stared with disappointment.    The damage was worse than we could have imagined…

To be continued