carwreck.com: around Boston harbor...

This is really the first opportunity I've had to sit in front of a computer for more than a few minutes in last four or five days. After a leisurely Tuesday and Wednesday, the weather turned warm and clear and boaters hit the water in droves. The past four days, Thursday, Friday Saturday and Sunday have been a complete blur. Thursday started slowly with two tows but the conditions were anything but calm on the water. On Friday I towed a tremendous, fifty-six foot world traveling yacht into Plymouth because a fuel line let go on his big engine. He had picked the boat up from the manufacturer four days earlier in Nova Scotia and was headed for Fort Lauderdale. From there she was getting loaded on a ship and sent to Mexico for a winter of cruising. Their eventual destination was their home port of Sacramento, CA. Friday also had me running over to Provincetown to put my scuba gear to use clearing a line wrapped in someone's propeller. Saturday gets its own paragraph:

The phone rang at 0530 for boat that had broken down the night before but decided to wait until o'dark thirty to call me. I think I'd prefer to get called out at eleven at night than five in the morning... On my way back home for a shower and breakfast the radio started buzzing with next tow call. "Um, I'm just finishing up another tow, can you wait an hour sir?" I took a quick shower. That took me right up to about noon and the rest of the day just blurred all together. I towed a boat from Plymouth back to Green Harbor, a boat from way south off the Plymouth power plant back to Green Harbor and then a second-timer (towed him once before this summer) from off Plymouth and into his mooring in Plymouth. I never made it to a barbecue that was going on at the marina. Oh well, duty calls.

Sunday was interesting. Though we (had the new guy on the boat with me) only ended up doing two tows, for a two hour period the number of people calling for Sea Tow was astronomical. I was juggling phone calls, beeping away with the Nextel and talking to people on both marine radios. It seemed like a bomb went off. Fortunately, not all of the communication traffic turned into actual tows, but it was certainly hectic for a while. I was glad to have someone else on the boat to drive while I was talking and writing.

Now it's Monday and I may actually have time to catch up on paperwork.

My first mention in the press:

"When it comes to revitalization, most eyes have been focused on Marshfield's downtown. But the town's center isn't the only area seeing renewal and rejuvenation..."

"Down the hall from DeRugeris' art gallery, a popular boat towing service has re-opened under new management. Sea Tow, a kind of AAA for boats to which sailors subscribe..."

Read more at the Marshfield Mariner

I can hear the waves washing against the slope of the beach as I lay in bed. The room, which was converted many years ago from half of the garage, is an extra bedroom separated from the rest of the house. We call this room the Captain's Quarters.

A small plane drones by overhead. Even though I can't see them, I know that my grandmother is in the kitchen preparing something for tonight's dinner; my mother is on the beach collecting shells and sea glass; my father is reading a magazine on the living room couch and my grandfather, also in the living room, is hunched over a fifteen-hundred piece jigsaw puzzle; my brother is off exploring the beach.

I lounge in the moment. Everything stands still, nothing moves and yet everything is happening at the same time. Each person is in their assigned place pursuing their own individual tranquility, but it is the combined stillness of the whole house and everything around it which defines my peace.