The boat displays Coast Guard Auxiliary decals on both sides of the hull, flies the Auxiliary ensign from the mast, and is listed in the Auxiliary's national database with her federal documentation number 1247836. That number is carved into a brass plate bolted to the main beam inside the cabin, and it's painted on the transom next to Sarah's hand-lettered name. When you mess with a documented vessel, you're not messing with a boat. You're messing with the federal government.
And when you mess with an Auxiliary Facility, you're messing with the Coast Guard itself.
Vivian Harcourt became president of the Harbor Point Estates HOA 7 years ago, and the neighborhood has been holding its breath ever since. She's 58, silver blonde highlights that cost more than my monthly fuel bill, and the kind of permanent half smile that suggests she's already decided the outcome of whatever conversation you think you're having. She sells luxury coastal real estate, and she sells homes inside Harbor Point, which means she has a direct financial interest in keeping the neighborhood looking like a page from Coastal Living magazine. Every house she sells earns her a 6% commission.
Every visible boat, every fishing rod, every bait cooler on the dock is a potential smudge on the glossy photograph she's trying to project to buyers. The first time Vivian and I had a real conversation was 3 months after Sarah's funeral. I was hosing down the deck of the Sarah Grace after a charter trip with four businessmen from Raleigh, good tippers, terrible fishermen. When Vivian appeared on the dock in white linen pants, a silk blouse, and sunglasses that could have doubled as a welding shield.
"Jack, we need to talk about the commercial activity." I kept hosing. "What commercial activity?" The charter business.
Clients coming and going at all hours. Coolers on the dock. The smell of fish. It's not consistent with a residential marina.
The charter operation uses the public waterway, Vivian. I pick up clients at the Beaufort town dock. The marina slip is where I store my boat. That's what marina slips are for.
She lowered her sunglasses, a move she'd clearly practiced. The CC&Rs state that marina facilities are for residential recreational use only. Running a commercial charter from a residential slip is a violation. The CC&Rs say residential recreational watercraft.
A sportfisher used for both recreation and licensed charter work qualifies. My attorney confirmed it before I moved in. The sunglasses went back up. "I'll have the board review it."
The board was Vivian, her neighbor Patty Oaks, who seconded every motion Vivian made like a trained parrot with a gavel, and Dennis Meehan, a retired dentist who attended meetings the way some people attend church, physically present, spiritually elsewhere, and deeply committed to not making waves.