FALMOUTH – At the opening to Falmouth Harbor, where Martha’s Vineyard is only 20 minutes away by the workman’s boat, Quickwater, Loud Fuel truck driver Joe Poillucci pumped 144 gallons of fuel into the boat.
Loud Fuel truck driver Joe Poillucci pumps 144 gallons of fuel into the Quickwater.
The wind howled, like a pre-blizzard warning of the big storm forecast to hit within hours. There was a spattering of wet snow in the air, and the water in the harbor churned.
“This is nothing,” said Poillucci, 50, of Sandwich. “It’s going to get worse.” And then took a deep breath and smiled. “Actually, it feels pretty good,” he said.
According to Bob Boden, of Cotuit, one of the captains of the Quickwater, the boat takes eight trips daily to the island. “We can’t quite go two days on the fuel we carry,” he said.
And so even in the winter, Poillucci delivers the fuel here
Joe Poillucci, on a fuel delivery to Falmouth Harbor.
almost every day. In the summer, when the harbor is full, he said, “I’m here all the time.”
The only thing that stops him, he said, is when there is too much snow for his truck to drive. Poillucci said the weather doesn’t bother him. “I like working outside. It’s better than sitting behind a desk.”
And even if it is cold, he said, “It only takes a couple of minutes to pump 144 gallons. Or in this case, five minutes, because I’m talking to you.”
— Brian Tarcy
