The steering quadrant is fixed. This would not have happened as easily as it did if it were not for the help of some very remarkable people here in Westlake and Lake Charles. Yesterday morning (Tue.) I hopped on our bike (you were right, Claudia, we needed a bike) and took off in search of a machine shop. The yellow pages I found listed several, most of them in Sulfur, La., several miles away. So I stopped at an auto parts store and asked them. They suggested I check with the lawn mower shop down the street so I did. I explained my situation to Wayne, the owner. He didn’t know of one but asked some of his employees. They weren’t sure but got on the phone and started making some calls. One of their customers did something related to boats so they gave them a call. They recommended the shop they use, Southside Machine Works. Wayne took down directions and had Lawrence, one of his employees, load up my bike in their truck and take me over there (it wasn’t close by). I explained what I needed to the shop foreman, Richard, who said they could make the part, but it would be expensive, about $250 (this actually sounded reasonable to a desperate sailor). My question was when they could do it and he said he’d have it by that evening! But, they would need the non-broken piece of the quadrant (which I hadn’t brought) in order to make the new piece correctly. Lawrence said, “well, let’s go get it” so he took me to the boat to retrieve the quadrant and then back to the machine shop, about a 30 mile round trip. On the way back to the shop he gave me a business card that he wrote his home phone number on and told be if it’s after 5pm when they have it done, to call him at home (otherwise at the mower shop) and he’d come pick me up, take me back to the machine shop to pick up the part and then back to the boat! Unbelievable. I told him that I’d wait at the machine shop so I’d have to only deal with the ride back, hoping I’d come up with something else so I wouldn’t have to take him up on his generous offer. The guys at the shop were great. They got right on it and let me hang around and watch how they turned a 2″ thick piece of stainless steel into the part I needed (it was an amazing process but that’s another story). Their shift was over at 3pm and they passed it on to the next crew and invited me to have a beer with them in Richard’s office. Later, when Richard was leaving he told Stuart, the guy who was finishing the part, to have Van take a company truck and give me a ride back to my boat when it was done, which he did. I thought we’d be stuck here a week trying to get this part made, but because of the help and concern of several very remarkable Louisianans Ma’alahi is whole again. We’re planning to leave here in the morning (Thurs.) and head down the river to the open sea.
-David
Travels of Ma'alahi 