Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: RESTORATION (12/03/20)
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TITLE: Amazing Grace | Previous Challenge Entry
By Francie Snell
12/10/20 -
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My husband said he had prayed specifically for a great deal on a used boat. “How about five-hundred dollars, Lord? I can afford that.” Not long after that, he happened upon something on the internet that caught his interest, a single photograph showing the filthy stern of an ocean cruiser. The picture had no asking price, but the owner would consider any offer. Still questioning my husband’s strangely bold approach in prayer, I agreed to view the boat.
Upon first sight, Paul gazed up at the craft with boyish enthusiasm, then looked at me and winked. Fear and trepidation rose in me. Despairingly I thought. Nooo, Paul, are you serious? Not this old boat! But I could see in his eyes his wheels turning.
Neither of us had been around boats much, especially any of this magnitude, a behemoth 1992 24 foot Bayliner Classic.
The aging man who owned her told us the story. “She’s been sitting here for fifteen years and’s never been in the water. Took her out a few times in Florida, brought her here, and parked her, but never got to take her on the lake like I planned - health reasons. Now I’m just trying to find someone to tow her away. We’re looking at moving to New Mexico, but gotta get her outta here first. C’mon, climb up here and look around.” He threw the tarp off and heaved himself up the rear ladder. Gesturing us up on the deck, he pointed down to the cabin. “Sleeps four. C’mon, take a look.”
The cabin was surprisingly pristine with little dirt; nothing a good vacuum and scrub brush couldn’t fix. Still, I tried to hide my lack of interest, nodding my head in pretend approval. Never did I envision the thing parked in our front yard.
“You’ll have to find a way to pull her out of here,” the man said solemnly.
How much will you take for her? Paul asked boldly as I cringed. The man gazed up at her as if saying “goodbye” to a beloved girlfriend and sighed. “How ’bout five-hundred, and I’ll throw in the fish finder.”
Paul jerked with eyes opened wide and looked at me like he’d just won the lottery. .
***
It was a drizzly day when we attempted the boat rescue with our 1998 Ford Expedition. We soon learned dodging around deep, flooded potholes for a quarter-mile in a compact economy car paled in comparison to hauling a six-thousand-pound boat and trailer up through overgrowth on a muddy road. We did both.
“Can’t beat the price,” I remember Paul saying as I watched him drag the vessel through sharp tree branches, ripping a hole in the liner above the window. The man stood by watching with tears in his eyes. I patted his shoulder. “Thank you, John. We’ll take good care of her.” He nodded and looked away and gave a final nod as I drove past him up the road in pursuit of Paul and the boat.
Out on the highway, our first stop was a local tire store in a hill town twenty miles away, a drive in which I held my breath the entire way. Hours later we had new tires but no working brake lights. Still, I followed Paul, and almost four hours later as night was falling, we drove into our cul-de-sac and parked in front of our house.
Now, after months of repairs on our deal of a lifetime fixer-upper, our investment cost grew from five-hundred to over eight-thousand dollars with tens of hours spent watching YouTube videos. The list seems endless of all the repairs and improvements we’ve made. I’ve tried to fulfill my part in boat restoration, mainly cleaning and dutifully standing by, tool in hand, like a surgical assistant aiding in a surgery with Paul doing most the work.
We’ve had our boat on the water over ten times, and she’s running great. And while we lay in bed at night looking through the windows up at the stars, we’re reminded of what a blessing she is.
My most recent accomplishment was sewing curtains. The next one will be affixing a name on the stern of the boat, Amazing Grace.
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