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A Deliberate
Act of Kindness by Karen Alexander
For years I’ve heard the references
about boats being money pits. A hole in the water into which you pour money;
that the word boat is an acronym for “break out another thousand”. So
I was remarkably calm on day two of “big boat” ownershp when the port stern drive blew. My relative calm was bolstered by the fact that the boat we bought cost half as much as we had been prepared
to spend. Of course, the calm didn’t come until my heart resumed beating
following the explosion and after my husband had assured me we could hobble back in on the starboard engine. My husband, Ward, is usually the calm one but realizing the massive nature of this particular problem
he was ready to navigate our recent acquisition right up the backside of the previous owner.
(I’m paraphrasing here for the sake of propriety.) The previous
owner, had no doubt seen us coming and we had been royally worked over.
The truth is we had to talk Captain Steve
into selling her to us. The morning after we first looked at Sea-Duction (now Triple Kiss) we decided she was the one. Though twelve years old, the Carver Montego Mid-Cabin Express Cruiser had been immaculately
maintained and she wore her age well. With the starry eyed enthusiasm of kid’s
on Christmas morning, or maybe the stupor of deer caught in the headlights, we set out to make a deal with Captain Steve. After several unsuccessful attempts at reaching him by phone we decided to head back
to the marina to see if we could catch him still onboard. Find him we did but he was having second thoughts. His schedule had kept him from being able to spend more than three weekends a year enjoying the boat so
it made no fiscal sense for him to keep it. On the other hand, he cherished the
time he did get to spend onboard. After our repeated promises to love and care
for her, he deemed us worthy of Sea-Duction.
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But now, with the smell of grinding gears
in the air, my husband was convinced that Captain Steve was one hell of an actor and was probably awash in relief that he
had unloaded a multi-thousand dollar problem just in time. Regardless, the problem
was ours now so Ward put these thoughts aside and called Steve for referral to a marine mechanic. Steve was genuinely disappointed to hear of the demise of the stern drive and put Ward in touch with his
guy. This is when we learned that the phrase “nothing happens fast
on a boat” has numerous applications. Marine mechanics are either in extremely
high demand or operate on Boat-Time all the time. Either way, the
estimated time it would take to replace the stern drive went from days to weeks and the estimated cost moved into the same
ballpark as my son’s used Honda. Luckily, we had taken all of the money
pit references to heart when allowing for unexpected boat related expenses.
But, unknown to us, there were forces at
work behind the scenes. Steve had kept in touch with his guy and was aware
of the impending cost. Toward the end of week three, we received a note from
him offering his sincere apologies for the inconvenience along with a check to cover the cost of the new stern drive. Unexpected, unsolicited, and unheard of in this world of unaccountability. His attitude was simply that if we hadn’t bought the boat when we did, he would have had to replace
the stern drive himself.
As much as we have tried to acknowledge
him as a prince among men, a sailor among landlubbers, to Captain Steve it was just the right thing to do. We believe it was an amazing act of generosity and integrity. A
rare and deliberate act of kindness.
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