The Live Aboard Sailor Story

1980

A True Story

Written 05/2013 * 1,156 Words

By Howard Yasgar

In 1980, my company was in the wholesale automotive and marine electrical parts business, and we were located on 36 Avenue in Miami Florida.

Our specialty was the rebuilding starters and alternators for the automotive and marine market.

On a few occasions, a retail customer would come to us but dealing with the public was not really our business, however, I always liked helping people to solve their problems.

I have always felt that when a person has a problem, even though to us, it may seem trivial, it was probably the most important thing on that person’s mind at the time.

Because our company sells only wholesale, we were located far off from the

beaten track, we were located in an industrial neighborhood, and unless you had a car and knew where you were going, finding our company would be very difficult.

One morning, as I walked by our parts counter, I noticed a strange looking fellow standing there.

He was hard to miss, he was tall, thin, and he was almost totally dressed in white, except for a small yellow and red feather he had on his white fedora.

He had on a beautiful belt with all colorful marine flags on it and he was also wearing nicely creased white slacks, and a white dress shirt with an open collar and a gold coin on his gold necklace.

He looked to me very much like a wealthy yacht owner.

The other thing that was unusual about him was that he was carrying a small white Coca Cola cooler, which he placed on our sales counter.

I recognized the Coca Cola cooler right away, it was the kind that you took to the beach, and it held 6 or 8 cans of soda.

As I was studying the guy, I looked out our front door into our parking lot, and I didn’t see any cars parked there.

So, I had to wonder how this guy ever got to find our place, and how did he ever get here.

I assumed that someone had probably either dropped him off, or he had come by cab.

It was always possible he had walked to our company, but that would be even more unusual, because we were not near any bus stop, and we were 20 miles from Miami Beach where lots of Yachts were located.

Besides his white clothing, he appeared to be about 40 years old, and his face was a bit gaunt looking.

He looked like a guy that had hefted a few too many whiskeys, but other than that, he was clean, shaven and normal looking.

He reached over the parts counter and shook my hand.

He said, “I just came from Miami Beach Marina, I had heard that your company tests alternators”.

Trying to be nice to him, I said yes, we do that kind of work.

The fellow then opened the Coca Cola cooler and took out a small marine style alternator, made by the Motorola Company.

I recognized the alternator as the type used on small sailing yachts. It was the type that had a small wind driven propeller on it instead of a pulley.

You attached the alternator to one of the cables that held up the mast and the wind turned the propellor and the alternator produced enough electricity to light a bulb.

I now assumed that this fellow was a wealthy sailboat owner from Miami Beach.

So, once I saw what he had, I told him that the type of test equipment we had in our factory only worked with alternators that had pulleys on them, and we had no way to test his alternator.

He appeared very dismayed, and I really felt bad for him.

I could see by his contorted facial expressions that he was becoming distressed.

Then I had an idea, I told him that I had a friend around the corner that had a smaller electrical rebuilding shop, and I would call him up, perhaps he had a way to test your

alternator.

So, I called my friend Eddie who had a business called Truck Industrial.

Eddie’s business was located about three blocks away from us.

Eddie said send the fellow right over, he would be happy to help him.

So, when I told the fellow what Eddie had said and gave him Eddie’s directions, he was elated.

He put his alternator back into his Coca Cola cooler, lifted it off the counter and walked out of our building carrying it, and that’s when I assumed that I had seen the last of him.

Incidentally, as he left, I saw that he was wearing expensive white marine boat shoes and no socks.

As soon as I had given him Eddies address, and it appeared to me that the guy was going to walk the three blocks to Eddies business.

Now, I thought that this guy walking everywhere was kind of strange, but I knew that in the sailboat business there were a lot of strange and eccentric people.

So, the fact that this guy was walking everywhere, made me think that he was probably more than a little eccentric, perhaps he might even be a little crazy.

About three in the afternoon, I saw that the fellow was back standing at my parts counter again.

I had thought I would never see him again, but apparently, he had walked all the way back to me from Eddies shop.

He said, “I just want to thank you for sending me to your friend, he tested my alternator and said it was working fine, and he didn’t charge me anything to do it”.

By now, I was thinking that for sure this guy was little off his rocker, so I asked him, “Are you sure you came here all the way from Miami Beach Marina, that’s over 20

miles away.

“Yes,” he said, “I live aboard a sailboat there at the Marina.”

Well, that explained the nice clothes, hat, belt and shoes, this guy was a sailboat yacht live aboard sailor, and he probably did have a sailing yacht at the Miami Beach Marina.

So naturally I had to ask him, please tell me, how big is your sailing yacht is?

“Twelve feet,” he replied.

I didn’t know if he was joking with me.

I said you really live aboard a 12-foot sailboat, that’s too small to live on, that’s the size of a rowboat.

I couldn’t believe this guy was serious, but he was.

“Yes,” he said, I have a built-in bed and a little shelf where I keep some salami and some cheese”.

“Thanks for your help.” He said, “I’m heading back to the Marina now, and he turned around and walked out my door carrying his alternator in the Coca Cola cooler.

I had to go to the door to look, he was walking, there was no taxi or car waiting for him.