Boating with Sunset Delight: Marine Toilet Paper and Boat Parts Heaven

3/10/2017

Don, a friend of a friend, lives here in Vero Beach. Clark spoke to him yesterday briefly on the phone, and this morning he came over to say hello. Don has done a lot of work on boats over the years, so he and Clark had oodles of things to talk about. I sat in on most of their conversation, but the topics were mostly beyond my ability to add any value to the conversation, so I just listened.

As they talked about boat parts and repair, I saw two "looper" boats come in and dock at the marina near our dock. The first to arrive was Captain's Choice whom we met first in 2015 in Canada and then again this February in Marathon. Shortly after they docked, the second boat arrived. This time it was Follow That Dream whom we just recently met at River Forest East Marina on the Okeechobee.

Clark and Don so enjoyed their discussion that the "just stopping by" turned into a two-hour visit. After we said goodbye to Don, we walked up to the marina heads where I saw Jan from Follow That Dream. We had a nice chat. Then, on the way back to the boat, Clark stopped to talk to Mark on Captain's Choice. When we looked at the clock, we realized that the whole morning had passed by in a rush, and lunchtime had arrived.

Clark needed to mail some tax documents, and I wanted to buy some marine toilet paper. After lunch we set off to visit the post office and West Marine here in Vero Beach. We went to the post office first. One would think that something was being given away for free based on the line up to the counter. However, Clark had a lot of addressing of envelopes and return receipts to take care of, so we took care of that before getting in line.

By the time he completed his last tasks, the line had completely disappeared, and we just walked up to the counter. For some bizarre reason, whenever I see this kind of people-arriving-in-clumps behavior, I think back on my Queuing Theory days at Columbia University and more specifically Poisson processes. Never mind I hated that class with a passion! I must have learned something because it still haunts me 37 years later.

After completing our post office business, we swung around to the West Marine to grab some marine toilet paper before heading back to the boat. We stopped in earlier in the week and were told a new shipment would be in on Friday. Alas, the shelves were still devoid of TP, so we asked at the counter and were told the truck had just been unloaded.

The sales clerk went into the back and came out carrying two packages of West Marine TP. "Do you have the other brand?" I asked. "You mean Sea Land? No, we don't carry that here.", he replied. Disappointed, I flagged down Clark to discuss the options -- either buy a brand I do not like or drive 30 miles round trip to the West Marine down the road to buy the brand I do like. I decided it was important enough to buy the right product to wait.

The clerk at the West Marine in Vero Beach called the one in Fort Pierce and had them put two packages aside for us. I requested two because the clerk said that West Marine would no longer be selling anything other than West Marine brand. Clark suggested we stop by the store tomorrow with the possibility of visiting the farmer's market in Ft. Pierce. I decided I might as well make the trip right then and there as there is no guarantee we will visit the farmer's market tomorrow, and then where will I be?

Clark had an important phone call to make to the NJ Motor Vehicle Commission, so I drove. Naturally, he listened to "please hold", "Please be patient", "we look forward to talking with you" type messages for about twenty minutes of that ride before someone finally picked up the phone. In comparison, the time spent actually transacting business with them lasted about two minutes.

With some random turns thrown in by Google Maps just to make the ride interesting, I found my way to the West Marine store. I asked at the counter about TP on reserve and was amazed when she picked up the phone and told the guy in the back to bring out the toilet paper reserved for Clark. What a memory she must have because I never mentioned his name when I asked about the item on hold.

While there, besides the TP, we bought a fishnet on a telescoping pole for the boat. I dropped a sponge into the water the other day and had no good way to retrieve it. Clark managed to scoop it up with the deck brush. We decided a net might be a good addition to our supplies, and we were both pleasantly surprised with the size and design of the one we found at the store.

Our toilet paper mission a success, we headed back to Vero Beach and the boat. As we exited Fort Pierce, I saw a very large building and read the name out to Clark as we drove by.

Eye-catching Sign

"Want to stop?" he asked. "Sure!" I replied. He found the next available spot to make a U-turn. This store is gigantic and has all sorts of imaginable and unimaginable boat parts. Clark said if this store was near us in NJ, he would have no need to visit West Marine ever again.

Their business card claims that they sit on 10 acres and have 30,000 square feet of new boat parts. I believe them. As we strolled up and down every aisle in the main, air-conditioned portion of the store, a salesman came up to me and said we should be sure to go "... through the double doors which is open to the public as well." In response I said, "It looks like we might be here a good long time then." He nodded his head in the affirmative and walked away to let us browse.

I saw many things I recognized and many more that left me clueless, but Clark was in boat-parts heaven. I did find a couple of bins with Sunbrella Canvas at $5 per pound or a flat $10. Unfortunately, it was all useless to me as either the wrong colors or extremely odd, unusable shapes. Still, it was a bit of fun to poke around in hopes of finding a treasure.

Although Clark was practically drooling as we looked around, after an hour and a half of walking the store, we finally left with only a business card in hand. No sooner did we pull back out onto Route 1, however, than Clark says, "Look for the alternator store I saw as we drove by here." Well, I looked but saw no alternator store.

Certain he had seen one, he made a U-turn at the top of the hill to take another look. Low and behold, only visible when heading into town, not out of town, I saw the store. Clark made the next available U-turn, and we stopped to visit the alternator store which, from the outside, looked more like a junk yard than a repair shop.

Clark asked someone the way to the front of the store (not at all obvious) and found a guy working on an ice cream truck while talking on the phone. He signaled us to wait, so we stood around taking in our surroundings. With nothing better to do, I studied the ice cream truck, with all its vital organs hanging out, and wondered if it would ever run again.

The other item of interest was a large, white dog that lay in the sun with its tongue hanging out. I thought it strange that it wanted to lay in the hot sun and wondered if it was healthy or on its last legs. That question was answered when a young lady showed up with a shopping bag. As she walked by, the dog jumped up, tail wagging and followed her wherever she went.

Eventually the man on the phone signaled that we should follow him into his shop. Even so, it took a while longer for him to conclude his phone call. While we waited, the lady with the grocery bag entered the shop. I asked her if she had food in her bag. She smiled and said yes.

With the once lethargic dog from outside following her about, she was immediately greeted inside by a chihuahua who joined the other dog in tail wagging and shadowing her every move. When she went in the back, I heard her opening and serving up a can of dog food. That was the last I saw of any of them. At last the phone call ended and Clark got to ask his questions about alternators and over-charged batteries. Here again, we took only a business card and a phone number with us when we left.

With our shopping excursion completed, we arrived back at the boat just before 5:00. All told it only took about four hours to mail a couple of letters and buy two packages of toilet paper. Wrung out from the day's adventure, I collapsed into a chair with my Kindle and read until dinner time. The chair I sat in faced east. Consequently, I totally missed the amazing sunset in the west! Fortunately for the blog entry, Clark was on his toes with camera in hand.