A day later, the young couple arrived with countless stories of their terrible experience with the prospective vessel and Rambo Ray. It was clear that the situation with Rambo and that vessel was not going to be resolved or even considered, so we began to look for other options as our departure time was closing in on us quickly.
Finally, someone close by decided to sell their sailboat. It was small, but with some TLC it would work fine for them. There was however another problem, the young couple had no experience sailing. We would have to find a seasoned skipper to captain their vessel the entire journey.
After giving it some thought, Captain had just the person for the job. “Y’all are gonna love Smoky.” he assured us as we now focused on getting the young couple’s vessel ready.
Several days later, there was a short skinny man sitting on Doug Black’s picnic table by the dock. He had a huge fluffy beard, scraggly hair going in every direction, and he was puffing on a vaporizer.
“Smoky is the name… and you are?…” The man asked with his hand extended.
“Peter… Every one knows me as Rabbi Peter.” I answered.
“Pleasure to make your acquaintance Rabbi”. He replied graciously.
For the next week, I would wake up at sunrise, and there would be Smoky, pondering on the projects he would have to tackle on that day. I would offer him a freshly brewed cup of coffee and without fail he would take a sip, then he would pause and say: “ahhh… The elixir of life…”
Sunrise to sunset became a blur. It is amazing no one got hurt, considering the incredible amount of people in each other’s way, doing their best to complete every project. In the evenings, having exhausted all our energy, we would lounge around listening to the beautiful young couple singing. Justin with his muttonchops mustache focusing on the precision of every cord, and Chelsea singing as she gazed into his eyes with the biggest smile. Every day was a repeat of the last, and a foreshadow of the next for several weeks, with the exception of Shabbat, where rest could always be found in Aleph Tav.
One early Shabbat morning, I unfolded a beautiful table cloth over our galley table, then retrieved the Torah scroll from the V birth. I then called the young couple over. They were stunned with reverent awe… I covered Justin’s head with a talit, then I opened the scroll. Placing a pointer on his hand I said: “Repeat after me…” ❤️
He spoke each word with tears rolling down his cheeks. Chelsea looked on with a red face, sniffling her nose.
Then, “once’mo again”, as they say in these here parts, the sun rose and it was back to the frantic hustle and bustle; carrying boxes, patching dinghys, tightening cables, designing mufflers, sowing sails and swatting gnats, all in 99 degree weather wearing as little clothes as possible.
“Rabbi…” Said the Captain as he took me aside, “…Ma’gash brother! dis’hea ain’t nothing but constructive criticism. The folks from the Baptist Purity just drove off… They are highly offended!”
To be continued