6/22/14. The wind was so strong from the northeast when we got to the Alligator River we had trouble getting into our slip, but finally got tied up. There was only one other boat in the marina in addition to us and a work barge, a very nice sailboat - I'm sorry I don't know much about sailing vessels, but it looked a lot like the one above.
Once we were settled in a young man from the sailboat came over to greet us. He told us he was hired to crew on the boat by the owner, and they were on their way to Connecticut. He said they were here for their second night because the wind was so strong that morning that it kept them pinned to the pilings in their slip and they couldn't get out without damaging the boat. I'll let Sharon tell the rest of the story in her own words:
"Chapter three thousand, seven hundred and forty of my book. Yesterday afternoon, John and I decided to dock his boat, Coast2Coast, at the Alligator Marina on our way to wherever we wanted to go. We had finished our visit with John's brother, and the weather was finally comfortable. Our slip was only one of three occupied, so we would have privacy for a change. One boat was a working boat, ours a 27 foot fishing boat, and a few slips down was a beautiful sailing yacht. We were sitting on the cockpit of his boat, John enjoying a cold beer and I was reading a fascinating book. We noticed a man enter the shower room three times in two hours, each time exiting in a different outfit. He had a large belly, long, stringy hair, and yet he was the man that boarded the yacht..Not judging, it was just curious.
Five minutes later a young man in his twenties comes over to visit and share a beer with John. He was well dressed, polite, and the afternoon was beautiful. A mild breeze and no sun, we were having our first nice afternoon. And then the drama began! This young man stated that he was just thrown off of the yacht, that he had been the only crew member helping this man sail his new boat to Connecticut, and they were fighting. I need not mention that they were both quite intoxicated. Suddenly, this strange looking man throws off all of this young mans luggage from the yacht onto the dock. This was the captain of the yacht, this strange looking man that had a fascination with showering. He had fired his deck hand and refused to pay him a cent. The young man asked where we were headed next, and if we could take him to Norfolk. Without thinking this thing through, we agreed.
Then we began to wonder if it was a scam, it had happened so quickly, it seemed almost planned. We wondered if this young man boarded our boat, if he could pirate the boat from us. I was on my way to shower, and both men were in the lounge arguing. It turns out the older man, the captain, was married to a Kennedy relative in Connecticut, and he had hired this deck hand to help him sail to Connecticut. I attempted to use my counseling skills to rectify their problem, when the Kennedy-in-law physically assaults his mate. I left them to fight it out and took my shower. Then, idiot that I am, I proceeded to the yacht to try and talk some sense into this multi-millionaire. I was given a wonderful tour of this exquisite yacht, shown pictures of his wife and family, heard how he had thrown this young man off of his boat because he was argumentative, easily agitated and always drunk. According to him, Dean, the deck hand, had been in prison for five years, did not have a driver's license because he had been arrested for DUI two times, and on his back he had a big tattoo on his that I needed to see. He would not tell me, told me to check it out myself. He did have many tattoos on his arms, but we are used to that here in Gloucester.
At that point, I go up to this young man named Dean, and rescinded our offer to take him to Norfolk the next morning. I asked him to show me his tattoo, and it was huge, REBEL was tattooed on his back. I told him that I had boarded the yacht where he was employed and was told that he was drinking 3 six packs on the boat yesterday instead of working, that he had gotten the wife of a cardiac surgeon's wife pregnant, and the history of his five years in prison, his DUI's, and very many scary things. Yet, Dean was honest, admitted to his mistakes in the past, and was looking for a fresh start. He also stated he was a master chef, schooled in Texas, but could not get a job with his record. He had shared this information with his boss after he got the job, not before. I apologized to him, but thought that he should find another way to Norfolk. He had NO money, and was emptying cigarette bins looking for butts that he might be able to smoke.
Now I am feeling sorry for this man, and go back to the yacht and ask his boss just to give Dean one hundred dollars for a bus ride to Norfolk. He refused, stated that he was a pathological liar and dangerous, and he had not fulfilled his contract. Well, of course he hadn't, he had been fired. I go back to our boat and John goes up to take his shower, and two sheriffs knock on our pilot house door to question me about the assault. Dean had called the police and wanted his boss arrested. Just what I needed on our first quiet night of our "adventure" .
When John returns from his shower, we go to the lounge where Dean is sitting and have a long talk with him. John asked if he had any weapons, and Dean allowed John to search his luggage. No weapons, no drugs, no money! He had been promised to be paid when the boat was delivered to Connecticut. I asked if he was a Christian, and he said he had no faith, his mother was Jewish and his dad a Mormon. He had not spoken with his dad for 19 years. This guy turns out to be 30, and the owner dude was 62. God, I am not good at judging ages. My faith has told me to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and house the homeless. So of course, we let him on the boat this morning at 5:30, fed him breakfast and lunch, and dropped him off at Norfolk without incident. I think God had our backs, as Dean had admitted to wanting to throw his boss of his yacht the night before. Well, John and I are safe and Dean is somewhere in Norfolk. I purposely did not name the Kennedy-in-laws name as I do not want to be sued. True story. The longest 24 hours of my life!"
As a post script, before allowing Dean on the boat I did my due diligence. I used the internet to research the bits and pieces of information we had gotten from him in normal conversation about himself and his current employer and found them to be true. I even called another part time employer he had casually mentioned and got a reference (after independently finding the phone number on the internet) and found out that the employer was also his landlord, so I was able to talk to someone who knew him apart from his current situation. In addition I was carrying my usual concealed "insurance policy" so I felt like we would be OK.
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