We baught a new mainsail earlier this year, but we aren’t quite ready to put it on until this old one is totally dead. We always like to squeeze every bit of life out of one sail before we bend on the new one. We keep gluing this old sail back together, hoping we can make it last just a little longer. Well…we can see the end in sight…and realizing that the new sailcover we had made in Thailand last year is just NEVER going to fit around the new fluffier mainsail, since it is a really tight squeeze even around the old softer one, we realized we should have the mainsail cover modified soon to protect a bigger new sail within the next few months. It hurt me to see our poor old main sail sit for 4 days with no sailcover on it…but better this one than the new one!
Upon arrival to Crater Bay, in Nosy Be Madagascar, a friend on another sailboat asked a captain on a local charterboat for a recommendation for someone who could help us. We were a little skeptical when the Cruiser arrived with the local captain the very next morning, discouraging us from the sail loft in Helleville and encouraging us to try his friend Joe Rodman out. He said that the sail loft would be very expensive..tourists prices…Always being open to saving money though, and with the sailcover not being a mission critical component of the boat, we went to meet with the guy who was waiting for us onshore. We layed out the sailcover and spoke in sign language…since he only spoke French and Malagasy, and we only speak English and a bit of Spanish and Malaysian/Indonesian…about what we wanted done. After an hour of discussion (you would think we were designing a bridge) , a price was negotiated, and we followed him to his shop, a dirty dusty mile up the road.
Joe kept the lead…his wheelchair pusher was a nimble young guy. Ten feet behind him his 4 year ran to keep up, and Then a distance 100 feet behind, was me. I walked as fast as I could to keep up with the little boy. Patrick trailed behind taking advantage of glorious photo ops, along the road. We dodged potholes and rocks, dead rats, local women with 10 foot logs on their heads, Zebu..the local work cows pulling carts, cars, motorcycles, tuk tuks, dogs, cats and children as we paraded up this dirt and rock road. Finally we arrived to his “loft” a real stretch of the imagination even having been in SE Asia for the last 4 or 5 years. He has us first go up the ladder to his loft, and then he somehow hobbled up the stairs like it was easy. We took carefully placed covers off his 100 year old sewing machine, and then agreed on a date and time for the sail cover to be finished, shaking hands. We parted saying to ourselves…wow…what did we just do…do you think he will destroy it? Do you think we will ever see the thing again? We crossed our fingers and waited for Sunday to roll around.
Sunday came, and we dined near his shop as the agreed 3pm came and went. We went back to the marina and asked around if anyone had seen Joe. Not one cruiser or worker there had ever seen or of heard this man in a wheelchair who fixes sails and canvas. Now we were getting a little nervous…what if we never saw the sailcover again? Maybe we negotiated him down too low? But really….$60 is a months pay for a professional here…he would find us…or would he?
PWE went back to the boat, and called our cruiser friend to call the captain who introduced us to Joe. That captain came right back and told us he had been trying to find us all day to let us know the sailcover wasn’t done but it would be ready and would be delivered to the marina tomorrow morning.
So the next morning came. Since the sun comes up at about 5am we wondered what we should do…go up to the dock around 8am was what we decided. Our friends Kieth and Mildred came by having just been to shore,at just about that time, and I asked if a man in a wheelchair was up there…Mildred had noticed a man in a wheel chair, so we got in to the Dingy with cash in hand to race up to meet him. And No sooner did a boat come zooming out from shore to let us know Joe was there.
So in we went, rolled out the slightly dirtier sailcover on to the ground to have a look. It was perfect. He did a great job…exactly as we had discussed. We paid him his well earned money, and everyone shook hands and went away happy. He was all smiles, so happy to have just made a month’s pay with a couple days work. We were happy to now have a bigger sailcover ready to protect our bigger sail, for an affordable price, even if it would rain mud on our decks from it for the next few rainfalls. We were happy that the sail cover hadn’t dissapeared for good and hadn’t been gnawed in by a rat.
Our old sail will come off soon, and will become a makeshift awning for a season in Tanzania…and will then get rolled up right to donate to a local village to make in to sails for their sailing canoes. It will live another few lives.
Love the story about Joe, especially that his sewing machine is 100 years old. I thought mine was old at 50!