Fault Lines - John Knoop

City. And I can boast that I got paid to enjoy all of these events. Now I must line up with
everyone else and buy a ticket.
On board the schooner Gloria, September 20
30
As we sat at the Blanco y Negro one morning
we saw some possible good news walking our way.
It was Captain Ed Powers of the schooner Gloria,
with a look of recognition on his face.
We talked to Powers when we first scouted the
Puntarenas scene and he told us he was heading
south and through the canal to the Caribbean. But
he was waiting for someone to charter his schooner. No charter clients have shown up so now he
is willing to take us, if we will help him repair the damage he suffered in a squall off Nicaragua.
We are delighted to move on board, loading the cycle in his skiff and then winching it on board
the schooner. We go to work on the damaged rigging, replacing broken stays, realigning cables,
patching the mainsail and getting ready for the voyage to Panama. Both of us have experience
sailing. Naren crewed with an uncle in Argentina and is well versed in nautical lore. He even
knows how to use a sextant. I sailed in Michigan and won races. While we do the repairs the
captain lays in supplies: mostly cheap canned goods and what will probably turn out to be our
staple, a full stalk of still green but ripening bananas. I’ve been hearing Ed’s story, which strikes
me as the tale of a classic American hustler.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Powers is about forty-five. He looks a bit like Walter Pigeon,
with a pencil thin mustache. He has an affable manner, and loves to talk about himself. By asking
innocent questions, I gradually put together a rough biography.
When he was fourteen, he quit the eighth grade, ran away from home and got a job clerking
in a dry goods store. Three years later he had a girl and a late model roadster. He moved to
Florida with the car and the girl and developed a system to beat the horses at Hialeah Racetrack.
His system was based on getting the racing form fresh off the plane from New York and watching
the board at a bookie joint until a favorite came up with fairly long odds, seven or eight to one.
Whatever his system was, it worked so well that Ed was able to salt away a small fortune. He
married the girl, bought an Airstream trailer and headed for Mexico.
They settled in Cuernevaca and had a couple of kids. When the money ran out they moved
to Los Angeles, where he stumbled into the bronze baby shoe business, which required very little