Monday November 16th 7:00 to 8:00 pm

The decade between the mid-sixties and mid-seventies, before cartels, the business of getting the increasingly popular and increasingly expensive marijuana into the country fell to those with the daring, or stupidity, to risk much. A young, financially floundering, man with a family to support, is offered a solution to his problems. All he has to do is join with three others and get an antiquated tug boat to Thailand and bring back a ton of trouble. This is a detailed account of Dave, who he is , why he choses to take part and his constant state of apprehension. Along the way there mechanical problems, nautical problems, logistical problems, guns, drugs, prostitutes, a wedding, near fatal social missteps, mountainous waves, groundings, leaks, snow, and of course, the coast Guard.

“After building and sailing boats for nine years, Dave did have nautical chops, but it was a lot more risk than he should take. He had a wife and a four-year old daughter to consider, what would they do if something happened to him? To put his life on the line, trust a stranger’s promise to pay lots of money after doing a job that you can’t tell anyone about? That would be stupid.”

“He knew it didn’t make much difference after the first bag came aboard, if caught, they would be in serious trouble regardless. But the very real mountain of incriminating contraband, branded them professional smugglers. This wasn’t sneaking across the Tijuana border with a kilo hidden in the spare tire.”

“There were no good options. They faced five thousand miles of the North Pacific in winter, nursing a sick engine, on a boat that was coming apart. No matter what they did, as bad as things were, it was going to get worse. “

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stanley Toliver was born in California in 1941, the son of a career Army officer and a redheaded stepmother. He attended schools on Army bases in Asia, Europe and the Deep South. After serving as an Army Medic, he morphed into psychiatric nursing, dropped acid in the late sixties and quit nursing to build his first sailing yacht. Together with wife and infant daughter, cruised the waters of South America, South Pacific, and Hawaii. He finally settled in Hawaii where he graduated from the Pacific Maritime Academy and became a licensed Charter Captain. Because of his marine experience and boat building skills he was hired to build racing yachts, construct, and maintain a fleet of picture boats for Universal’s “Waterworld”, and help construct a working replica of the “Titanic” for James Cameron.

In 2005 he retired to Oregon to be close to family.