News-Journal/Chad Pilster
The recently married Walter Pyster , left, from Deltona, has been a volunteer ferry boat captain for about 1 and a half years and 1000 hours. He captains the boat about 4 and a half days and half a day he works in the store. In his previous life he was a school teacher. Thursday, March 23, 2006, at the ferry to Hontoon Island State Park in DeLand. |
April 3, 2006
SERENE CROSSING
Ferryboat captain
finds new love,
new direction in life
By SARA KIESLER
Staff Writer
A quiet serenity hypnotizes passengers as Walter Pyster steers the ferry across the St. Johns River in DeLand.
To the dock. Turn around. To the island.
Other than their occasional chatter, the only sound is the whir of the tiny ferry’s motor.
Pyster instructs his passengers on the miles of hiking and animals they’re about to see.
The 76-year-old retired teacher learned a lot about life from his years in Africa, and is still learning as he experiences new love.
Pyster is taking the state park visitors to a magical place of shade palm and Indian mounds, its graceful paths winding through the habitat of bears and wild turkey; blueberries and hibiscus.
Even strong winds, heavy rains and tricky currents don’t stop the 12-passenger Hontoon Island ferry, which transports for free 365 days a year. Today, the sky is clear, and the breeze sings a springtime song. The rhythm of the waves and the wind pull the boat’s green canvas, whipping the certified captain’s orange jacket around his body.
But the newlywed is in control, young as ever on the open waves.
“It’s very peaceful,” Pyster says from behind the podium and lever that control the battery-generated ferry. “The fact that it’s cut off from the mainland makes it even more peaceful.”
Slowing the boat, Pyster guides it with a slight turn of the wheel toward the elbow of the dock. It bumps the sides a little, bounces off the dock once and parks. Two young children jump off, their fishing poles flailing upright like rubbery swords. He looks behind him, sees a couple on a yacht and pauses before he backs out into the lily-strewn river.
“One rule for the ferryman is to always give other boats the right of way,” said Pyster, who has been volunteering at Hontoon for a year and a half after a three-month training course. “Never take any chances.”
Nature is an ideal setting for a romantic like Pyster. His eyes tear up a little as he talks about Irene, his 74-year-old bride of one month, whom he lives with at her home in Deltona.
Before he met her, he was a simple man with few possessions but the memories of all his years as a missionary, teacher and businessman in various parts of Africa. He grew up with a missionary family in French West Africa, near Guinea, Mali and the Ivory Coast, and came back to Liberia where he spent 15 years as the business manager of an intercontinental hotel in Monrovia, among other jobs.
“He tells me that he’s living on a higher plane with me, we can go to some better restaurants,” Irene said. “I lifted him, but he lifted me too because I’m not lonely.”
The couple met at a retired teachers’ meeting where Walter spoke about Africa. Irene says she didn’t notice him at first because she was taking minutes, but the next meeting when he sat next to her there were sparks.
“We both feel it’s the most intense relationship of our lives,” said Walter, who keeps taking his new wife on honeymoons, thanks to her timeshares. Both were widows with children when they met.
Other friends and officials at the park fear that Pyster might leave his job steering visitors across the blue ripples to spend more time with his wife, but they know it will be good for him. He’s there for now, at least, volunteering as a ferryman because it frees up the park rangers for all the other work they do, like watching over campers’ safety, and he loves meeting people.
“I find visitors at the park are always in a good mood and looking to have a good time, so I see people at their best.”
Pyster isn’t wearing a watch; he says he’s allergic to them. But somehow he knows it’s the end of his 2:30 to 5 p.m. shift. Irene, and other volunteers at the park, are amazed that he’s always there, right on time.
A Little History
NAME: Walter Pyster
AGE: 76
REASON FOR LEAVING AFRICA: It was too dangerous to stay once the revolution took place around the mid-1970s in Monrovia, Liberia.
WHY DELTONA: Before he moved in with his new bride, 74-year-old Irene Pyster of Deltona, he lived there for nine years starting in 1986 when he became a teacher at Trinity Christian Academy.
HOW HE STARTED VOLUNTEERING AT HONTOON ISLAND: He invited a friend to coffee, and she asked him instead to meet her at Hontoon where she volunteered as captain of the ferry. He took the three-month course so he could be a captain, too.
WHEN THE HONTOON ISLAND FERRY RUNS: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day of the year, free of charge.
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