Obit: Peter Schinella, Concord, NH, Native; Florida Veteran, Pastor

VERO BEACH, FL — Peter A. Schinella, 80, of Vero Beach, Florida, died on Feb. 21, 2024, due to Alzheimer’s disease.

Born on Feb. 18, 1944, in Concord, New Hampshire, Peter was the son of the late Albert and Pauline Schinella. He is survived by his wife, Carol Crombie Schinella of Vero Beach, FL, as well as eight of his nine children and their families: His eldest son, Anthony, and his wife, Christine, and their sons, Evan and Dominic, of Concord, NH; his eldest daughter, Anna Schinella, her husband, Asa Viklund, and their daughters, Evangeline and Eliora, of Princeton, FL; sons Simon Schinella of Homestead, FL, and John Schinella of Key Largo, FL, and daughter, Maria Schinella, of Landstuhl, Germany; son Michael Schinella and his wife, Elaine, and their daughters, Sarabeth and Luna, and a son who is on the way, of Homestead, FL; son Benjamin Schinella of Greensboro, North Carolina; and his youngest daughter, Rebecca Schinella of Miami, FL. He is also survived by his sister, Carol Carlson of Concord, NH, and her five sons, and their wives and children. His second son, Christian Schinella, predeceased Peter.

Peter was a jack of all trades, working as a pilot trainer, a pastor, a painter, and in the marine repair sector at several marinas, as well as other jobs. He was charismatic but conflicted and constricted, living, occasionally, as a vagabond and sometimes as a liveaboard, taking amazing trips with his children, preferring the ocean to dry land. Peter had numerous hobbies, including building ultra-lights, tinkering with mechanical things, constructing models, and performing as a musician. He also built three sailboats by hand.

Peter was raised in Concord, NH, toyed with hot rods as a teen, and “rode the bench,” as he described it, of the Crimson Tide football team, graduating with the Class of 1962.

Peter married Chris Ricketson and they had two sons. He joined the U.S. Air Force after high school and served 12 years as a pilot trainer at Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, NH, Beale Air Force near Yuba City, California, and Moody Air Force Base outside Valdosta, Georgia. As it was the 1970s, Peter would often get written up by commanding officers about the length of his sideburns and mustache. This led him to want to leave the service. He often said, in hindsight, he should have stayed and not left due to something so trivial.

Before leaving the service, Peter designed plans to build a 25-foot sloop. As he told his family, the plan was to live aboard the boat on the ocean after he left the service. Peter and Chris would later divorce.

After leaving the Air Force, Peter worked random jobs. He built the sloop, naming her Dulcinea, and would be introduced to the woman who would become his second wife, the late Claire Bergeron of Manchester, NH. When the boat was completed, he sailed her to the Seacoast of the Granite State to be closer to Claire. Together, they lived aboard the boat and sailed around New England, New York, and New Jersey during two summers with Peter’s sons, returning to Great Bay in Newington, NH, and residing in the Port City Motel in Portsmouth, NH, during the winter months.

Peter and Claire moved to Hill, NH, where they were married. In mid-1978, they sold their home and spent a year driving and camping around the Northeast, searching for another sailboat they could live on.

After finding a 40-foot ketch, Ludlow Fair, in Georgetown, Maryland, they purchased the boat and repaired and retrofitted it while living out of a van in the parking lot of the marina. Decades later, Claire would joke about their homeless-by-choice lifestyle, likening it to Chris Farley’s “I live in a van down by the river” skit on “Saturday Night Live.”

Peter also began exploring spiritualities outside the Catholic church. A fan of Bob Dylan, the purchase of the first album in his Christian Trilogy set, “Slow Train Coming,” influenced Peter to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He also delved into the writings of Edgard Cayce, Zecharia Sitchin, and others while exploring spirituality, including reincarnation and otherworldly theories.

The couple moved to the Keys, living on Ludlow Fair at Campbell’s Marina in Community Harbor in Tavernier for several years, often taking Peter’s sons on adventures, including harrowing trips to the Dry Tortugas and the Marquesas and the Bahamas. While outside the Marquesas, they lost control of Ludlow Fair in a storm — an anchor fell overboard, damaging her hull, a dinghy came unleashed and sank, and other equipment was lost at sea. The boat had to be towed to Key West by the U.S. Coast Guard. In September 1979, the family was nearly killed when Hurricane David, a Category 5 storm, ripped through the Bahamas, damaging the ketch near Great Harbor Cay. Massive ocean swells, dozens of feet high, tossed the boat into the air like a rubber duck in a bathtub, only to come crashing back down. It took a week to make it sail-worthy back to the Keys so his sons could return to New Hampshire.

In March 1980, Peter and Claire had their first child, Anna, and would eventually have two other daughters and four sons.

Peter would build another boat, Ephesians 4:8-9, a three-masted ship, to live aboard while also working as the property manager of the Rainbow Bend Motel (now Resort) in Marathon, FL. The boat was launched in 1982.

A few years later, Peter and Claire moved to Homestead, Florida, where they lived for about a decade. They donated Ephesians to a missionary family making trips to the Bahamas. Peter became a pastor at the First Baptist Church of Goulds in Goulds, FL (now Iglesia Pentecostes Beth El), writing his own spiritual songs and leading a small congregation to spread the gospel in some of Miami’s poorer areas. He brought countless people to the Lord and performed many marriages.

In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew, another Category 5 hurricane, hit South Florida, bringing destruction in its wake, including severe damage to most of Homestead. Against evacuation notices, they foolishly stayed at home. Thankfully, their house and the church sustained minor damage.

Peter repaired the church and gave it to a Hispanic organization that used the facility at night. He took the leftover insurance money and began building Tré Bon Nouvel, Creole, for “very good news,” a 100-foot sailing cargo schooner that would bring humanitarian goods to Haiti. He built the ship in four sections, later moving the pieces from his Homestead backyard and connecting them together at the Manatee Bay Marina in Key Largo, FL. A profile in the Miami Herald in 1994 noted friends and strangers had begun calling Peter “Rev. Noah” due to his unending work and tenacity in trying to complete the construction of the ship.

Peter and the family took several trips to Haiti until 1999 when the ship struck a reef in south Haiti and then was damaged in a storm a week later. On the way back to Florida, a large chunk of the fiberglass from the ship’s hull peeled away. The ship was fixed, but the trips had battered the family as well as his second marriage. The family stopped going to Haiti in 2000 but stayed in the Keys, living in Community Harbor.

While living in South Florida, Peter played guitar and sang in several bands, regularly playing at restaurants, bars, and VFW halls, often with his son, John. He would attend open mic nights and jam with anyone who would let him sit in — playing guitar, harmonica, a washboard, and spoons.

In December 2004, Tré Bon Nouvel caught fire and burned in the harbor, leaving the family homeless. Three of the kids were on the boat and were able to escape. The family also lost several pets. The cause was believed to be an exposed, faulty wire from a second-hand lamp. The Keys community came together and raised thousands of dollars to help them get back on their feet, something Claire was so grateful for.

The couple would divorce, and Peter began a relationship with Carol Crombie, whose brother played in the music scene with Peter and who also lived at Campbell’s decades before. Carol became his third wife in 2009 at Coral Isles Church in Tavernier, FL. During summers, they traveled around the country, visiting family and friends, often with Rebecca. Their truck camper was adorned with a welcoming sign that read, “Music Is Played Here.”

In 2019, Peter and Carol would move from the Keys to Vero Beach, FL.

Peter led a full and somewhat fantastical life even though his whimsicalness and decisions sometimes brought economic instability to his children. His role as a father was different with each one. While they all have a different perspective on his life, Peter made an indelible mark, and they will miss and love him, all in their own ways.

A Celebration of Life for Peter Schinella will be held in Jupiter, FL, on March 23. Email tonyschinella@yahoo.com for details. A burial and memorial service will take place this summer with family in Concord, NH.

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