Chapter 1

I sometimes walk around the shop, and just think, that if ole Leroy could just see me now, he wouldn't believe all the things, and good fortune, that have come my way. I came to Belize with two girls, running from drug dealers in their small Mexican fishing village. It helped that one of them was smart enough to steal the dealers' money on the way out of the village. I had brought my boat, the Queen Isabel, a large catamaran combination salvage and tow-boat, and two 28' catamarans. One I had loaded on the deck, and one was in tow. I had turned over, to the employees, the marine company that Leroy had left to me. I was fortunate, in having the insurance money left by my mother, and the inheritance of everything Leroy had, along with his insurance money. I am certain that I could have made it without the money Leta had taken from the drug dealers, but hey, it spent just as well as hard earned money, and there was plenty of it.

When we got here, we bought into, and later bought outright, a Diving School and guide service. I had tried to make a go of building 28' catamarans, and had sold about a dozen, and built another two dozen for our use. We also had a marine engine sales and service, and a bakery, along with a freight forwarding company, located in Belize City. We live and operate the dive shop on Key Caulker. About 90% of our employees are women. In the beginning we had not planned it that way, it just happened. When we saw that much of our success was directly caused by the girls, we continued to replace male members with females, as they left for whatever reason. I just seem to be able to get along with them, and, as I tell everyone, beautiful women, bikinis and palm trees, ain't no better deal anywhere. I have five girlfriends, yeah, I know, you think I must be one hell of a man, or hell for lucky. It's not either, I just do what they tell me and most of the time keep my mouth shut. They like each other, they get along, and they don't cause me any problems. We have two of the cats set up for treasure hunting, complete with metal detecting equipment, and dredges. We have been extremely successful in finding Mayan relics and Pirate gold. We have a contract with Belize, where we keep 60% of the appraised value of all gold and coins, and turn over any relics without compensation.

"Hey, Linda, where are you going?"

"I'm going to the city, to pick up some parts."

"Couldn't Jimmy or Brende bring them?"

"They could have, if they had not already left when I found out I needed them."

"Well wait, I'll tell Leta, and go with you."

Linda is a pretty cool girl. She was a year behind me in school, and while we were in school, I always thought she was a whine-bag. Her older sister, Anita, is almost five years older than me, but oddly enough she was my best friend. Not to mention that I had always been in love with her. Both the girls are beautiful, to the extreme, They are Mexican American, and I guess now you can add Belize. If there were ever better looking women, I have not seen them. When we got to the city, Linda went to the motor shop, and I went in the bakery to get a snack.

"Hi Elke, where is your beautiful sister?"

"Which one?"

"Yeah, I guess that's right. I was looking for Heidi"

"Bullshit, you just wanted a fried pie and can't tell which is which."

"Well, OK, you caught me, do you have any apricot?"

I walked over to the motor shop to wait on Linda. She was visiting, with all the girls, so I set down and started watching TV. There is a tropical storm, heading toward Costa Rica and Nicaragua. I'll bet we get a downpour from it. Diving in the rain is no big deal but when the water gets rough, it's hard to keep the boats in position over the divers. If it gets too bad, we'll be refunding some money and re-scheduling some trips. I better find out where Anita and Clawdy are when we get back. On the way back to Caulker the weather was bright and sunny, but when we got there, Leta was watching the TV in the dive shop. The storm had turned away from Nicaragua and was now heading toward us. All the boats along the cost had started moving our direction to get out of the path of the storm, and now it was chasing them.

"Where is Anita and Clawdy?"

"They left Chetumal, about an hour ago, heading this way."

"Call them, and tell her to kick her boat in the ass, this may get bad. Get all the boats on the radio and tell them to come on in, we need to start thinking about what to do."

I went to the shop and yelled at everybody and told them about the storm and asked what we needed to do, to prepare for it. Marko and Andy had been through storms here, and on the mainland, and told the boys to start bringing in everything from the patio.

Andy said, "We are going to get some boats beat up, but there is nothing we can do to stop most of it. Just tie them up good. Damn we better strip the canvas tops off of them or they will be gone."

Marko said, "Do you think they would do any better inside Treasure Island?"

"Probably, if we can get them stripped, in there, and tied up. But I sure wouldn't stay there with them."

About 20 minutes later, the boats started coming in, and Leta told us the storm was gaining intensity. Everyone including the students worked to get the canvas off the boats.

"Take all of them to the island, and bring four of them back. Make sure you don't leave anybody. I'll move my boat in as close to the building as I can. Anita is on the way and we need to get her boat next to mine. Put all the fenders on the side she will be against."

People had started moving boats to the west side of the island, and tying to anything they could find. I had Buddy and Russ keep a watch, and make sure they didn't take up the space we would need for our boats. By the time the crews got back from the island, Anita had made it in. We got as many ropes on the boats as possible. A few of the divers were trying to call home. The two couples with Anita, seemed to be having a good time, and not worried about the storm. They wanted to know all about the business and talked to the divers and girls. Most everyone was in the dining room, and Mercedes, and her crew, along with some of our girls, were making, wrapping, and placing sandwiches in an empty ice chest. I couldn't think of anything else to do that would help. We only had windows on the front, or the dock side of the buildings, and they were not that large. We did put a grid of masking tape on them. Ireni and Joci were getting ready to sing and the wind was picking up a bit. They let me sing a song that they thought was funny." If I Had A Boat, I'd Go Out On The Ocean. About the time I got to Ole Tonto, He Was Smarter, And One Day Said Kemo Sabe, Kiss My Ass, I Bought A Boat, And I'm Heading Out To Sea."

The lights went out.

"Damn was I that bad?"

We got two gas lanterns lit, and I noticed we had quite a few locals, and the place was packed. I asked Ireni "What was going on?" and she said, "This is one of the few concrete block buildings on the island." Lila and Cristi went upstairs and came back with a battery radio. The storm had caught up with the boats trying to get inside the reef, and was approaching category 2 hurricane level. I had no idea what that was and someone said that "A category 1 had winds of over 75 miles an hour, and a 3 started around 110, so it was in there somewhere." " I hope the big cats don't get torn up, the little ones we can replace."

"Hey Leta, do we have insurance on the boats?"

"Levy, you can't run a business without insurance on the boats, buildings, and divers."

"OK, I just never thought about it before."

Anita just had to get me, "Levy, you don't think about anything but food".

One of the ladies that was with Anita, was telling the kids stories, and they didn't seem to be as upset as they had been. They sure are nice people. I would like to look out the door, but I guess so would a lot of others, "Damn, I'm getting tired of setting here. You can hear things hitting the building, and I keep wondering about the boats. I bet that Heidi, and the girls in the city, will be mopping water before this is over." Lupito told me he had seen the river raise up by several feet during storms. Damn, you can have some crazy thoughts at times like this. I remember a Disc Jockey I heard once on a Blues radio station giving a weather report. He had a guitar and would play blues riffs, while he was talking, and then sing, like, "Da da da da dum It's 8 o clock in the monin, da da da da dum it's 74 degrees, da da da da dum ain't much wind blowin' just-a-gentle-breeze." Man I need to get my head straight. Clawdy seems a little worse than I am, I better talk to her a bit.

"Hey Clawdy, come over here and set with us, I want to ask you something." She came over, asked what I wanted.

"Do you know any German songs?"

"Yes."

"Well, sing it for us."

It was a school song, of some kind, and we all tried to sing it with her. We had no idea what she was singing, but we tried to make the same sounds. It was a long night, and I kept thinking I would be glad to see morning come, until it did. Well, I've seen worse, but it was on TV and they were still dropping bombs on it. The other side of the island must be clean, because everything from over there, is over here. "OK folks, it's over, and it's daytime. If your home is damaged to the point where you can't stay in it, come back here and we will figure something out."

Anita's boat didn't look so bad, it had been hit a few times, and had some marks on it, but nothing that paint and new graphics wouldn't fix. Leta and Lena started talking to the dive students and told them "She would refund their money, and half of their plane ticket."

Then we found out that they couldn't go, because the airport had severe damage." Well you divers can set around here, or you can go help us dig out of this.". All of them wanted to help." OK, let's split up in two or three teams, and check every house on the island, to see if they are OK, if you can help them with their homes, that would help. Instructors and assistants let's go get the boats."

We had one dive boat torn up, something had hit the control console so hard it bent the steering wheel into the panel. The Treasure Island mangroves were still with us. A few boats were loose, some with branches still tied to the rope. Most had a few scrapes but nothing major. The pirate boat was floating half submerged Dani drug it onto the sandbar. A few days work, and this place will be in good shape.

When we got back to the dock, we had visitors from the government, asking if we could take the big cat's out to search for people. They assigned us an area and we fueled up. The woman that had been telling stories to the kids was a nurse and her husband a doctor named Morrison. They asked if we had any medical supplies and I told them just the big first aid packs in each boat.

"Get 3 or 4 and let's take them with us."

We were moving within 15 minutes, Anita would start on the east side of our area, and I would start on the west. The first boat we found was a 24' day cruiser, with nobody aboard. Dani climbed onto it and fastened a line. We found 3 more boats with the last being a 36' sailboat, with four people onboard. We tied a line on their boat and brought them aboard. We met up with Anita, and they had two people. They had found several empty boats. We headed to Caulker and unloaded then left to pick up the other boats. In a week we had rounded up a bunch of boats and several more people.

The Coast Guard had been dumping the boats they drug up in our impound. The search was called off, as the spotter planes could find nothing else floating. The Belize equivalent of the Coast Guard, told us to hold the boats until they identified the proper owners and contacted them. I asked about some boats that were sunk and he called his boss to find out. They wanted me to video the salvage of each boat, about 5 minutes per boat, showing the name or markings on each. We had to keep track of which ones were in the normal boat traffic areas and we would be paid some amount, which he did not know, for clearing them.

All the diving companies had suspended operations because things came to a halt when the airport shut down. At least the divers could not fly in and get mad at us. We spent a lot of time running people back and forth to Belize City. Other than a lot of trash on the dock and parking lot, our buildings there were not hurt. The reason there was so much damage on Caulker was because most of the houses were made of wood and tin, and not built to any code. We bought all the corrugated metal sheets we could find, along with lots of building materials and paint, hauled it to Caulker, then sold it for the invoice price. The people worked hard at cleaning and repairing the buildings because their economy is based on tourism, If they don't keep it looking neat, people will not stay and spend money with them. There was still a lot of junk floating around looking for a place to land.

The airport re-opened and things got back to normal. The open land to the south of us is a bit swampy but cheap. I had talked to a lady named Sara, at Caye Caulker Real Estate, about buying a chunk of it. The price of the land was good but doing something with it was going to be expensive. From the water to land dry enough to stand on was about 40 yards and it was covered in bushes and mangroves. I'll get the dock guy with the dredge and piling boat to take a look at it. We had boats tied to the bushes for a hundred yards. The water was pretty calm on this side of the island and they were not beating on each other, but I will be glad when the Coast Guard finds the owners.

I got Bethan, Rubi, Dani, and Lena to start clearing the boat traffic lanes. There was only 8 to 10 that looked worth the trouble. Some of these boats were docked at Belize City before the storm and how the hell they got out here was a mystery. One guy wanted his boat raised and was acting a bit too nervous about it so the Coast Guard just happened to show up as we raised it. Once it was up and the water pumped out they went aboard and had a look. I thought he probably had drugs but it turned out to be artifacts he had stolen from one of the ruin sites. They told us to haul his boat to the impound, and they would haul him to jail.

The Coast Guard brought several people out to identify their boats. I was ready to hand them over but the Coast Guard wouldn't allow it. We started getting salvage payments from insurance companies and called the Coast Guard. He said as soon as we were paid I could release the boat. They did it to keep anyone from coming back to them for salvage payment or claims of damage done by the salvage company which turned out to be us. After 60 days any boats left would be ours. They had contacted every owner they could, and some of the owners did not respond, because they didn't want to pay the salvage fee. It was fine with me. Hell, they had pulled in half of them and we didn't have anything in them. Law is Law, and while most of the time it works against you, sometimes it's a gold mine. When the 60 days were up we still had 30 boats. We had one taxi boat that was brought in by the Coast Guard and when the taxi company found out who had brought it in they said to keep it and they would buy one of our boats to replace it. None of the boats that were sunk were claimed because of the Coast Guard salvage fees. In some cases the owner would rather have the insurance money than the boat.

Leta got a big check, from our insurance company, for damages to our boats, and to repaint one side of our building. She had taken lots of pictures of the damage and told them we were going to go ahead with repairs because we needed them for business. The boat that took a hit on the console was completely torn down, painted and put together using the parts from it and some new stuff. We had torn up one top in our hurry to get them off, and the insurance paid for it without asking how it got damaged. So we went ahead and put new motors and top on it and it was a new boat.

After the 60 days, we took pictures of the 30 boats we still had, along with identification numbers, and went to see the" Coasties." The officer I talked to, took the pictures and list, to a woman, and told her to give me salvage titles to all of them. When she finished I asked what I owed her and she said "Nothing." I walked out of there as the owner of 30 boats and some of them were real nice expensive boats. I stopped by to see the dock man, and told him what I was thinking of doing with the property next to the shop. He and his ass- hole foreman would be out to look it over.

I took all the boat titles to Leta, and then talked to the shop crew. I got them started on looking each boat over and deciding the when and how. Some of the upholstery was stripped out and laid on the decks to dry and be used for patterns. Linda kept looking at a 38 foot cabin cruiser.

"Do you want that boat Linda?"

"No, I want to change the shape of the cabin, and extend the top, to make a patio cover for the back part. Way too much sun on the back."

"Do whatever you want, the beauty of these babies is the only money we will have in them is the repairs."

Linda assigned Buddy and Russ the 6 small boats, and told them to handle them like those we bought. "Power wash, sand, patch, and paint. Two of the motors were so old they needed to be junked. I'll haul the outboards to Jennifer, and get them checked out and tuned up. She probably won't be happy when I haul the 6 boats to her but she will have a better chance to sell them than we will."

Herb and his foreman came, and we looked the property over. I told him, I thought it would be best to just pull up the brush and then dredge the waterfront and use the sand to fill in the land." We took a piece of conduit, and a boat, to check the depth of the water. You could walk out at least 75 yards before you got your face wet. He told me that the reason it was not that way in front of my buildings, is because it was dredged years ago when it was a warehouse. He had seen the boatyards down the coast at Puerto Barrios in Guatemala, and understood what I was talking about on the motorized lifts that would transport the boats to a cradle. They ran out on what looked like two docks and you parked the boat between the docks, ran straps under it and lifted it out of the water. I also wanted a launch ramp, with a rock surface extending into the water. I wanted to build a trailer, of sorts, that would allow a catamaran to be pulled out of the water to wash and paint the hulls. I would need some type of tow motor to pull it with. I could see the dollar signs spinning around in his eyes like the wheels in a slot machine. It was agreed that I would find out the width of the lift and he would start figuring out how much fill we would have to move to make the land usable. I told him I was waiting on the figure before I made an offer on the property and his price would determine if it could be done or not and if he wanted the work he needed to keep it in mind.

I took a cart to talk to Sara, about the property I wanted. I wound up paying $130K, for a swamp with half a dozen shacks on it. She told me that the people living in the shacks were doing so without permission. I stopped at the shacks on the way back to the shop and told the people that they would need to move before the construction started. One old guy told me he had lived there for 20 years. I hated to do it to them but I needed the property cleared. I just told them that they would probably start working in a week and left. Ireni got us permission to park our salvage boats to the north of us while the work was being done.

The guy came back with a price of $215K. It seemed high, until you priced good vacant property on Caulker. We were going to have some good land when it was finished, and I just liked the idea of turning a swamp into solid ground. I got a firm 90 day completion date, and turned him loose.

They started out by pulling and dragging out all the brush. Then they drove concrete pilings in a straight line that would be our waterfront when they were through. They brought all the equipment they could round up for this job and some of it was old stuff. They had two barges to haul the mud and after they had enough dirt behind the retaining wall to make a ramp they could unload them with bobcats. The worked slowed as the bobcats had to carry the material farther inland. It was a slow process but it was getting done. Since they had no equipment to pack the soil they would spread a layer of mud and sand about a foot thick and then flood it with pumps. When they hit areas of clean sand with the dredge they piled it on the other side of the lot next to the road and would use it for the top layer. They were about half way finished in a month and they had enough sand piled up by the road to cover the lot several times over. When I asked about it he told me that whatever we didn't use on the lot would wind up in the pot holes in the streets. You do have to run a zig zag line down the streets after it rains so it looked like a great idea to me. I guess you don't waste clean sand, they saved all they hit. I got tired of watching and went to harass Leta.

"Hey Leta, where is Anita?"

"Damn it, Levy, they don't even get pulled away from the dock, before you're asking me where they went. I'm going to get a big chalkboard, and hang it on the wall, and make her sign out with where she's going and when she will be back".

"Great idea, Leta, have you seen Russ?"

"No, Levy, he does not work in this office. You might try looking in his work area."

"Hey, that sounds like a good idea, bye."

Hey Russ, who fills in the holes in the streets?"

"Well, if you lived on a street that had a hole, and when it rained it filled up, and golf carts splashed muddy water on your house or porch, you would fill it."

"That's how they get filled?"

Yeah, it's all I've ever seen.

Anybody on the island got a dump wagon, that you could pull with a golf cart?

"Not that I know of."

"Hey Leta!"

"Levy, what the hell do you want now?"

"I need a wagon, to pull with a golf cart."

"Well go see Lupito, and get one."

"Great idea Leta, I'll be back in two or three hours."

Lupito told me where to buy one, and I got it and two big scoop shovels, and paid to have it delivered to the Freight Service, and then caught a ride with the driver. Jimmy was gone, but Brende helped me load it on the boat. I got a fried pie and a coke, and headed back to Caulker. Russ and Buddy unloaded it, and started putting it together. I told them to air up the tires to the max. I filled the tank on a golf cart, hooked up the trailer, and headed to the high school. I told the lady I needed two people to work for me, for a week or two, and what they would be doing. They always knew who needed the money and they would arrange the students' schedule, where they could work. I got a girl and a boy and told them what I wanted done. "No problem, we can do it, yes sir." I checked them both out on driving the golf cart, showed them the pile of sand, told them to turn in their hours to Leta and left it with them. In 3 weeks they had every street on Caulker smooth as glass.

I got Leta to help me find a leveler to pull behind a ATV, and got it ordered, then ordered a Honda four wheeler to pull it with. I'm tired of dodging the mud holes. The next time I went to the city, I stopped by the garden store, and bought rakes, shovels, hoes, and limb trimmers. I got 24 pairs of brown cotton gloves and all 8 of the trash cans they had. Next stop was the hardware store. I bought all the mixed wrong paint they had, and 4 gallons of 7 different colors. Thinner, brushes, rollers, pans, scrapers, tape, and plastic drop cloths. I had Leta call the island counsel and asked for a meeting. I told them we still had trash on the beaches from the storm and the community property had not been painted in years. We cannot afford to let people leave this island and bad mouth it to their friends. They started with the "We don't have money" song, so I told them that L Teem was furnishing the paint and tools to get it cleaned up. We would also hire all the high school kids for a period of two weeks. "Now what's your excuse? If you run into a problem that a little bit of money will fix come see us"

On the way back to the shop Leta asked, "Are you going to give them the four wheeler?"

"No, we will need it to maintain the boatyard. I need you to find out who the girl that shoveled the sand is. I want to offer her the job of taking care of the boatyard. She uses a shovel like she was born with it. If any of the streets get real bad she can use the leveler to fill them in and I'm sure there will be plenty of sand left."

The high school turned out ready to get the job done and a lot of the local people helped. Their lives depended on tourism, and all of them knew it, but some of the bastards were just too lazy to help. The entire business district got raked, shoveled, hoed, picked up and painted. We hauled all the trash to south end of the boatyard lot, and burned it, then shoveled the ashes into the swamp. The girl I wanted to hire was there helping so I had her go talk to Leta. Her name is Rae and she will start work for us when the big clean- up is over.

I introduced Rae to the dock man, and told him that she would be the grounds keeper when he was finished and if he had any advice or instructions on how to take care of it, to let her know. He said, "All you hire is women?"

"Well hell yeah, why would I want to hire some ole ugly guy, when all these pretty girls need jobs? Now, when you going to be finished?"

"Oh, two weeks."

"It's going to be close on you being done before the lift gets here, and I don't want to handle that thing more than I have to."

Well he got it done before the lift came. The lift is a great big heavy sucker, and damned near killed all of us. You are supposed to have a crane, to assemble it with, and there is no way to get a crane on the island. The lift is the biggest thing here. I asked all the old timers how they would lift it and hired some friends of Lupito. We had 10 people, ropes, pulleys, come a longs, gin poles, and the four wheeler hooked to it, and I still don't know what kept us from all getting killed. It is up, and it does work but if it breaks it will just set there. I ain't messin' with it again.

We had to buy a plate compactor, and Rae has the approach to the docks smooth and she poured dry cement all over the place and swept it into the sand and gravel. We wet it down with a water hose, and it made the big lift happy to have a solid surface. We got all our salvage boats moved to our new dock, and we were selling the ones that needed the least work. The storm was good to us, but it hurt a lot of people financially.

Linda has her cabin cruiser drawn out, and I think she is wanting to get it moved to the dock in front of the shop. Just looking at the drawing, I would say that Marko is going to be busy with some fancy woodwork.

I'm back to being bored again. I don't know why I can't find a fun project to work. Uh oh here comes Rae, and it looks like she wants me to work.

"Levy, can I have part of that old chain link fence?"

"Yeah, what are you gonna do with it?"

"Clawdy told me, that on the farm where she lived, they drug it behind a tractor to smooth the dirt. I need it folded over twice so I have four layers and it needs to be about 6 X 6 finished size."

"How come you don't use the leveler?"

"I think it will work, for filling holes in the streets, but it just follows the contour of what you have. If the wheels go up so does the blade. If you start with a hilly lot you just get a smooth hilly lot."

"OK let's try the chain link, it beats just letting it lay there."

We got it made, and chained to the back of the four wheeler. The finish on the boatyard was done by dragging the bucket on the bobcats backward and it was a bit uneven. She tried different speeds and then wired some concrete blocks on the top layer, but it did work. We named it the Dirt Devil, and she ran it over the lot back, forth, and diagonally until it was smooth. This girl don't quit until it's right. I think she could do a lot of things and I'm going to see that she gets the opportunity. I got the building contractor to build us a carport with 3 sides for our boat lift and that sort of finished the boatyard. I still need to build some cradles to set the boats on. I'm going to find a gas powered welder made onto a wagon, and then hire someone to build them.

Lupito came up with a guy to do the welding, and I made four trips to the city hauling steel for the cradles. He was a good fabricator but Lupito said I needed to keep an eye on him or things would disappear. I did catch him doing some welding for cash with our welder and materials. I just let him finish the job and I collected the money. I explained to him that if someone needed a small job done, to do it and give the money to Leta. That seemed to end the problem but I told Rae to help me watch him. We lifted the boats that needed total rebuilds, and thorough hull work, onto the cradles, and had to re-arrange a lot of things to get the boats close enough to the building to work on. I need to buy a one-ton hoist and "A" frame to lift out engines the big lift won't work, because it is too fast for delicate work. I'm sure the guy who built our dock cranes can build us one. Maybe he will have some idea of what kind of wheels to put on it to cross the loose sand areas of the lot.