At Floating Doctors base we have been working on two projects for a few weeks now. The doctors are medical professionals – sailors they are not. But boats are an important part of getting to the villages. And Floating Doctors has been donated several boats and boat parts over the years. Some boats have been sold or used until they have out lived their usefulness. Others have just been anchored or tied to a dock with little attention because frankly no one knows what to do with them. Thats were we come in. We are cruisers and former EMTs so we understand both worlds – the boat life and the medical side. Liana and I decided to take on the pile.
The “pile” is years worth of accumulated marine hardware and junk that has been gobbling up every nook and cranny on base. After looking through it, I told Ben I think we could sell a lot of it and turn it into much needed cash. After an earthquake last year, Ben has been feeling the financial stress of many thousands of dollars in unexpected repairs to a staff housing unit that fell into the water. No one was hurt but it left them several rooms short for staff housing. The only viable solution was to build floats for the building; basically two boats tied together as pontoons and turn the casita into a floating building. This was a huge expense along with the need to re-support the other buildings also damaged during the earthquake.
Ben started making me a pile of things we could sell and we walked around base while he pointed out other things that could be sold. Every day for the next month I advertised the marine sale we were going to have at Floating Doctors over channel 68 on our VHF radio. Each morning boaters tune in and listen to the local weather report. We go over local news and happenings and then – Treasures from the Bilge. It’s a free buy-sell-trade with other yachts in the area. So I advertised every day for a month. Yachties and dirt dwellers alike within twenty-five miles knew we were going to have this sale.
Last week was our last few days before the sale. Liana and I put up tables and neatly priced and laid out everything from anchors and winches to stainless steel parts, blocks, lights and fuses. We hung up half a dozen sails from the second floor of the main building and several more we left in bags. Cruising boats started showing up in the bay and dropping anchor.
The day before the sale we were told about a small sailboat that hadn’t been used in quite a while. It was turned over so it wouldn’t fill with water but it needed a good cleaning and some minor repairs. Liana and I spent the next couple hours scrubbing and fixing the cutest little boat. What fun someone could have in this. It even had a usable sail. One small rip, but our friend Crissie is a sailmaker and she said whoever bought it could bring the sail to her and she would patch it up for free. Thanks Crissie. (Haven’t sold it yet but we have someone interested.)
I got up early the morning of the sale and hung up our party flags on Silhouette. I also found an old bag filled with flags and put them on the dock and on the stairs of the four-story building. I even hung them on that little sail boat. The kitchen staff made coffee and aljandras for the shoppers. Ladies from the close-by village of Valle Escondido brought bags, jewelry and food to sell.
Jen and Carl gave tours of the base. Emily spoke with a retired nurse about volunteering. A couple of cruisers were interested in translating for us at clinics. Liana ran the sales desk and I walked around answering questions and giving out really, really good deals. People showed up by the boat loads. One of the marinas offered a free shuttle to the sale and they left loaded down with happy shoppers going home with lots of boat stuff. By the end of the day we were all wiped out but feeling pretty good. We had made nearly $2,000 on miscellaneous marine parts just taking up space and gathering dust.
The next morning our sale got such rave reviews those who missed it were disappointed. Even though we had a great sale we still had tons of hardware left over and so the manager of Bocas Marina invited us to come to their swap meet in three weeks. He is setting aside a large space with tables for us to do it again.
The other project we took on was a rehab project of a classic Choy Lee offshore 40 sailboat that had been severely neglected for many years. But that’s another blog…
God is definitely using you guys in ways you probably never imagined. We know that you are busy and appreciate that you take the time to share what you and Floating Doctors are doing, knowing of course that there is much, much more than you have time to write about.