January 27th, 2010 Thompson Bay, Long Island
Mike from Long Island Breeze does a Cruiser's Net at 8:30 am and when it was finished I called to ask when I should meet him to make the 10 mile trek up to Simms where the mail boat ties up. He was said that he needed to go early and that I should head in immediately.
I was there in 10 minutes, but in that time there had been a change in plans and I had some time to kill. I snooped around the grounds for an hour, helped Mike unload the frozen items that a friend had brought down from the mail boat, and waited as the fire extinguisher company went through the buildings.
Finally we were off in his flatbed. Mike had some business in the northern end of the island so he dropped me at the government dock to watch our new outboard and to make sure that their produce wasn't unloaded from the cooler until he returned.
The Place was a zoo...the mail boat "Island Link" was backed into the only well at the pier and was empty when I arrived. Its cargo was all loaded in 6 semi-trailers and one flatbed. They had been removed from the ship and were lined up on the opposite side of the parking lot. On the perimeter of the lot which was about 50 yards square, there were probably 10 or 12 flat bed trucks ready to be loaded. Their drivers were milling around like old home week... if must be similar to market day back in the 1800's. One corner of the lot was reserved for folks waiting to grab smaller deliveries. Some had lawn chairs a few had beers.
No one was in any hurry whatsoever... except for the hi-lo driver... and there was only one. He was dressed in long pants...as was everyone else except for me. His were camouflage and he wore brand new high top converse and a red shirt. He was everywhere. He'd grab a palett from a semi and spin it toward the correct flatbed. If it was a mixed pallet, he dropped it in the corner where it was separated and parceled out to into three areas which represented the northern, central and southern sections of the island.
I watched everything imaginable unloaded and reloaded for an hour and a half...mattresses, palm trees, hundreds of bags of cement, lumber, meat, an electric drum set, case after case of bleach.