New Smyrna Beach

We just had one of those days you cannot predict. It started lousy enough. Wind was blowing right on our noses and we couldn’t sail much at all. Disappointed, we had to endure listening to the whining noise of our 8 hp outboard engine the whole God given day. At last we arrived at the dock in New Smyrna Beach to take a brake for the rest of the day. If we only knew what a blessing this place was going to be.

It was humid and hot as it can only get in this part of the US of A. After brief chat with some retired folk lingering at the docs we found out that grocery store which we needed pretty badly by now was few miles away. We decided to see the nearby town first and after it cools off we would hike towards the store.

We were barely off the sailboat when some skinny man in a worn out suite came up to us with pack of magazines in his hands fixing his intense eyes on us. My heart sunk. I still had a noise of outboard in my head and now I am about to be assaulted with argumentative JW. Sure enough, provoking questions came down on us like an acid and we were working hard to get this guy of our back. But as it happened the sweetest and friendliest person on the planet was standing nearby listening.

Her name was Donna. She was done with her work early today and decided to spend some of this unexpected, free time on the waterfront reading her little Bible, praying for some direction for her life. Just when she came closer she saw a little sailboat pulling into the town dock. She always dreamed about taking a journey of some kind on her own and found herself drawn towards the dock. On the back of the sloop there was a small and faded Canadian flag. It’s a long way for such a small boat. She thought kindly of these two young guys who at the moment were trying to shake off local Jehovah Witness hound.

She offered us the ride to the store, which was an amazing blessing considering the distance and stifling heat of the day. Donna was great to talk to. We loved her immediately and become friends in seconds. In the grocery store we asked her if she would like to join us on our boat for a coffee. Our new friend dropped us off accepting the invite for later on and handed to us a bucket of ice cream. After a short while there was ice cream no more. We liberated it easily. Donna did come back later and took us to the steak house for a dinner – her treat. Johannes and I couldn’t believe our fortune. We had an amazing time enjoying her company, prime, juicy steaks, mashed potatoes and veggies. It was outstanding. We had a great time chatting away late hours in the night before Donna decided to call the night and took off on her Harley. We have never seen her again. What an angel she was.

In the morning we set off to continue our journey towards Key Largo. Next time we were in the library to catch up with our emails I found out that Donna’s email we wrote down wasn’t right. We’ve never heard from her again. If you ever sail through new Smyrna Beach and see a lady with couple of labs walking down the waterfront tell her Johannes and Maciek send their best wishes.

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