06/01/2016
Delivery: According to your Funk and Wagnalls, is a rather innocuous act or manner of delivering something or something delivered. However if you are in the yacht delivery business delivery may conger up other thoughts. If not foreboding certainly the dread of cold, wet and windy weather, rough seas, breakdowns and bad food come to mind, i.e., Dinty Moore beef stew, cup of noodles, etc. That was not the case recently when my crew, Arnie, and I delivered Robert and Mary Lou McDonald's 44' Fountaine Pajot catamaran, ROGUE ANGEL, from Annapolis, Maryland to Hope Town, Abaco, Bahamas in December, 2015. Robert's help standing watch gave Arnie and me an extra 3-4 hours of rest between watches. That was not the best part. Every morning Mary Lou was up before the watch change at 0600 with hot coffee and breakfast - quite often a hot breakfast. All the fixens for lunch were on the counter to take at your leisure. Without fail and regardless of the weather and the sea state, Mary Lou had a hot evening meal waiting at the watch change. Frequently she would offer up a tray of hor d'oeuvres in the late afternoon before the evening meal. Never were you lacking for a bottle of water, a juice or a Gatorade, or a snack at any time. Mary Lou was literally the hardest working member of the crew.
Mary Lou stepped up again as we were clearing customs /immigration. Mary Lou's attention was drawn to a resort guest who was in the throes of an anaphylactic seizure. Resort personnel were not responding to appeals for help. Mary Lou's instincts kicked in. With 43 years experience as a nurse she took over putting the gentleman at ease and demanding the resort immediately call for medical help. All ended well.
Note: An Annapolis-Abaco delivery would generally take about six days aboard a yacht of this size. Weather conditions in and east of the Gulf Stream in early December (40 knot winds and 10-12 foot seas) dictated we stay within 10 miles of the Atlantic Coast as we headed south. Frequent severe coastal weather conditions prompted stops in Beaufort, NC, Charleston, SC and St Augustine. On the evening of the ninth day we were finally able to cross the Gulf Stream near Cape Canaveral, FL arriving in Hope Town on the 11th day.
Even under the best of conditions what Mary Lou contributed to our comfort and the delivery in general would have been laborious, pains taking and time consuming. Thank you, Mary Lou McDonald, for all of your thoughtful help and hard work. You were genuinely the hardest working crew member aboard.
I would like to officially welcome Mary Lou McDonald to the crew of GPS Yacht Deliveries.