Adventures of Tom, Jan & Peanut Continued: New Smyrna Beach stopover

On Wednesday, January 20th we stopped at the free dock in New Smyrna Beach because our frig was misbehaving. We had blown a fuse that morning at Marineland. Once replaced everything seemed fined but as we were traveling I realized the frig was not keeping its temperature as it should. Tom made a couple of phone calls trying to reach a repairman and we headed for the free dock. Once tied up and anxiously awaiting a call from a repairman we decided to ease the frig out and check the back for obstructions and excessive dust. All was fine. Out of desperation I unplugged the frig, shut off the breaker and after pushing it back in position plugged it back in, flipped the breaker and turned the dial to the coldest inside the frig. Shortly thereafter the frig kicked on and has been working fine. Yahoo! Friends of ours live in a beautiful condo complex on the ICW here so we gave them a call. Soon we found ourselves moving to a dock in front of their place for the night. One night turned into four after I checked the weather! Storms, high winds and freezing temps were heading our way. Lets see, tied to a floating dock with electricity for heat or anchored swaying in the wind with the geni running all night to keep warm. Obviously a no brainer decision! We had a great visit. Merks for oysters(Tom eats them, yuk!), long walks to the beach and shops, and a trip with our friend Bob to watch a Lacrosse game in Winter Park. Bob and Patti's grandson John Michael, is a senior at Trinity High School in Winter Park. He is a very good Lacrosse player and had secured a scholarship to Mercer College. on Monday Dec. 14th after two great games over the weekend, John Michael text his mom from class and said I need help. I am dizzy and don't feel right. His parents picked him up and took him to the hospital. His condition worsened and he was taken to a larger hospital. After three days of running every test imaginable with no results a full body cat scan was done. They found that John Michael had had a brain stem stroke resulting in LIS. Locked in Syndrome. A condition in which your brain is fully functional, you can hear, see and blink your eyes but cannot move or talk! Everyone is asking themselves how this happens to a 17 year old athlete it top condition. John Michael is one of the youngest known persons in the nation to have this happen. It evidently is fairly common in people in their 80's. He is now in a rehabilitation hospital in Atlanta and has a long hard road to recovery before him. I am in awe of the way the community has rallied around him. There have been community wide fundraisers to help defray the nearly million dollar medical bill he will have. "Yesterday the college team he was to play on arranged a fundraising game to be held at his high school, which we attended. There were more than 1000 people there. The grandson of Harry Carry was the announcer and channel two showed highlights on the 6:00 news. High school parents had a huge bake sale and all concession foods, bake sale items, and raffle items were donated to his recovery fund. The opposing team signed a 24 jersey and gave it to John Michael's younger brother Ben and a Mercer alumni wore a 24 jersey while playing. The grandparent of one of the high school students is friends someone who knows the lead player from the band AC DC. It is one of their songs that John Michael played before every game as his warm up. The singer(I forgot his name) sent john Michael a video of his song and a personal message. He also sent him a personal copy of the message, a t-shirt and book! Why am I going on about this? It brings a warm feeling to my heart to know what good people can really accomplish when they take the time to care! Oh what we could accomplish in this world if more people were like this!
It is now Sunday morning. It is cold, ice on the docks and 30 degrees. We are waiting for the sun to warm up the fly bridge a little then will head further South.