Eating with the Sikhs

Jo and I had traveled south to our boat in Connecticut because a potential buyer was flying in to make a bid on her. We got there a day ahead of him so we could check that the batteries were fully charged and there was no mildew from sitting closed up.

After getting her in presentable condition, we drove to an Indian restaurant in the town of Middletown, CT. We were the only customers because it was a bit early. In the background there was a drone of a holy man on TV, chanting over what looked to be a corpse. The owner of the restaurant explained that it was evening prayers and it was being beamed in via satellite from the Punjab in India. I thought it was a little strange to engulf us in prayers while we ate but I asked how they could be doing evening prayers when it was getting to be dawn in India. He patiently explained that the satellite people had recorded the ceremony so it could be transmitted for evening prayers on the east coast of the U.S.

I commented on the fact that the holy man was wearing a turban which, in my limited understanding, meant he was a Sikh. "Oh, yes. Yes. We are all Sikhs in this place," said the owner.

He said when he first came to the U.S. he had a beard and had never cut his hair, like all Sikhs. "But that is not good here," he said with a laugh. "I was not permitted to cook food in the restaurant because I had a beard. So I cut off my beard and I cut my hair and I took off my turban." As he said this, he stroked his glossy black hair. "When I get older, I will grow it all back. But not now," he said.

All the other young men working in the restaurant had gathered around by now, wanting to share in his story. All of them were like him. Our waiter had a bit of a beard, but he was quite young.

The next morning, we drove back to the boat to await the potential buyer, an Englishman named Napoleon Mannering. I had Googled him the night before. There is only one Napoleon Mannering in our world, apparently, for he showed up in Argentina and in Toyko where he had been teaching English and running a soccer (football) club. He'd been interviewed by a Tokyo radio station and they had provided the transcript.

He arrived with the yacht broker. His surveyor had already been on the job for a couple of hours before they arrived. When you think you wish to purchase a boat, it is important to pay a surveyor to provide you a nuts-and-bolts analysis of what you are buying. It is the surveyor's job to protect the potential buyer. And so he did.

He informed him that there was water in the deck, causing some delamination. He did a pretty good job of scaring Napoleon away because he decided to walk away from the transaction without proceeding to the sea trials. He explained to me that he needs a boat to be perfect because he has no fix-up skills. Good luck, Napoleon. There is no boat that I'm aware on that doesn't need fixing up and regular maintenance.

So our trip to Connecticut was a bit depressing. But it caused us to drop the price of the boat by more than half. So we expect lots of people now will want to grab our beloved Quiet Passage since that price makes it the bargain of the year.