PurgatoryCove

Where the elite don’t meet...!

Well, it’s been a slow week here at Purgatory Cove.  We did get the pickup runnin' again, had to get all the water out of the tank and then treat it with some of Sam’s special recipe. He wasn’t happy, said he’d rather drink it than ride any day.

We had one of them trawler boats visit here this week. You know, one of those gussied up boats that looks somethin’ like a fishin’ boat without the fish blood, bait smell and rust marks. Actually, it wasn’t his idea. He anchored overnight up by the flats and couldn’t get his diesel started the next morning. He yelled on the radio for awhile and finally got a holt of one of those tow boat fellas further up the Bay. He was fur enough away from a boat yard that the tow boat fellas were going to change him a goodly sum, seems he let his towing insurance expire.

He talked them into towing the boat to Purgatory Cove. What he didn’t know was those tow boat fellas refuse to come into Purgatory. Don’t remember exactly why, my memory is a bit hazy there, Anyhow, they dropped him off at the entrance to the cove and there he sat until Willy came back in from crabbin’. Willy agreed to tow the guy to the fuel dock in exchange for a goodly number of longnecks. Willy was happy and so was the trawler guy, sort of.

Well, Lefty’s the nearest thing we got to a diesel mechanic (and that ain’t close) so down he went to look the situation over. One good thing about those trawler boats is that you can get a good look at the engine, mostly. Well, Lefty studies the problem for a minute or two and leaves for the old boat shed. After rummaging around in there, he comes back to the boat with an old rusty sledge hammer.

Lefty proceed to look the engine over again. Then he ups and belts the starter with the sledge. Lefty tells the boat owner, standing there speechless, to go give ‘er a try. Sure enough the engine turns right over and fires right up. Just to make sure, the skipper turns the engine off and starts it back up several times. Satisfied, he pronounces the problem cured.

Lefty proceeded to tell him the charge will be $200.  This really ticked the trawler guy off and he went off on a yelling jag, calling Lefty some names even Lefty hadn’t heard before and wanted to know how Lefty could change him $200 for just 15 minutes of work. Lefty, without raising his voice too much, told the gent that it was $5 for hitting the starter and $195 for knowing where to hit it. Seeing he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Lefty, he finally paid up and headed out of Purgatory Cove. He did wave goodbye, though. At least I think it was a wave.

Other than that, it’s been a slow week here in Purgatory Cove.

"We got no shirts, no shoes and no service!"

Well, it’s been a slow week here at Purgatory Cove. Mostly because we found out which gas storage tank Wade put the water in. Sure enough, we filled up the pickup and it hasn’t run since. Once we sell enough gas outa that tank to customers we’ll be back to good gas and we’ll be riding again instead of walking.

We did have a little bit of excitement though. One of those sailboat fellers found his way into the cove here; don’t know how he avoided going aground, we usually can’t. Anyhow, he had let one of those rope thingys loose and it went way up the pole. He was an older gent and wanted some help getting it back down,

Now Wade’s to smart to go up high with Lefty doing the hauling up, so it was up to Lefty to go up. That’s kinda bass-ackwards as Wade’s the small one and Lefty’s got some size on him. They decided to rig one of them old empty blue drums and one of the spare ropes on the sailboat pole to pull Lefty up. Ol’ Wade had enough gumption to get Lefty up to the top and get the line tied off to a cleat on the deck. While Lefty was tryin’ to get the rope thingy untangled it started to rain. Now everyone says Lefty ain’t got enough sense to get in out of the rain so it didn’t matter too much.

That was until Lefty got the mess straightened out and signaled Wade it was time to let him down. Wade untied the rope and found that Lefty plus the rain in the drum was heavier than he could handle. Wade started rising up off the deck as Lefty started down in the barrel. Wade hung on for dear life as he went up faster and faster, and Lefty came down faster and faster.

Well the next thing that happened was that Lefty and the barrel landed on the edge of the cabin top. They teetered there for a moment while Lefty looked up at Wade and Wade looked down at Lefty. Then the barrel tipped over, dumping Lefty and the water out on the deck. Instantly, the barrel took off back up the pole and Wade headed back down. Wade didn’t get hurt as he landed on Lefty, and as I said Lefty had some weight on him.

Unfortunately, landing on Lefty knocked the wind out of Wade and he let go of the rope. The next noise was the barrel landing back down on both of them. The good news is that nobody really got hurt. Except maybe that sailboat feller when he fell down he was laughing so hard. Well, we gave him the bill and he sobered up real quick.

Other than that, it’s been a slow week here in Purgatory Cove.

"Where your friends aren't"

Had a magazine fella come by last week. Saw his beard and thought he might be one of those hippies or even one of those survivalist gang members. As soon as he took off his hat and asked for a cold longneck, we knew he was a good ol’ boy like us.

Turns out he’s from one of those boat magazines up north. Every now and then he gets out and goes exploring. He was off this time looking for interesting places to write about. Then he stopped by here.

After we all partook of a few longnecks, he mentioned that his readers might like to hear about Purgatory Cove. Mentioned something about it being “how the other half lives” or something. Sam wasn’t really much for the idea, didn’t want the place overrun with high falutin’ folks wanting all kinds of services and botherin’ him and the rest of the help.

The guy from the magazine looked round for awhile and said he didn’t think that’d be a problem. Wade and Lefty both said they’d help, said they always had a literary leaning. Sam thought they were just leaning because they were tired.

Anyway, Wade and Lefty finally convinced Sam to jot down a few notes. The magazine guy agreed to print them if we’d send them. He finally got the car started and headed off down the road, drivin’ a mite erratic. Maybe he was just dodgin’ the potholes, though.

So here’s our first report from Purgatory Cove Fish Dock & Marina. Don’t come, just send cash.

The pump out station still isn’t working. In fact, the shore-side tank split a seam this week and dumped some “stuff” in the cove. Don’t worry though, it will wash off, well, at least most of it will. The good news is that the smell has kept those pesky transients away this week.

 Watch your fuel tanks, Wade thinks he may have accidentally filled one of the gas tanks with water. He was drunk at the time and doesn’t remember which one he did it to.

 Will whoever borrowed the pickup truck let us know where they left it? Lefty had to walk into town last night and he ain’t happy. By the way, the license is expired so stay off the main road.

 Some high class yacht club called last week about havin’ a ron-day-voo or something here. They seemed upset when we said we didn’t have a cocktail lounge. Guess the bait shack with the beer cooler didn’t count. Anyhow, it doesn’t look like they’ll be bothering us.

 You can fish off the fuel dock but I don’t think I’d be eating anything caught there.

 Someone stole the last roll of TP outta the head. From now on BRING YER OWN!

 We’ve had some complaints about Willy, what with the open stack on his crabbin’ boat starting up at 4:30 in the morning. Look, Willy’s got to make a living and can’t afford a new exhaust system so suck it up and live with it. Besides, Willy is a little sleepy at that hour and you should be up to fend off.

 Any resemblance between your missing dock lines and the new lines on our work boat is purely accidental.

 There will be no customer appreciation party this year, somebody already drank all the beer.

 The Travel-Lift will be back in operation as soon as the OSHA inspector leaves and we can pull it back outta the woods.

 Sally the secretary’s baby is doing fine. She is still looking for the father, though.

 Other than that, it’s been a slow week here in Purgatory Cove.