Caulking Part 1
Preparation

In the past half year, our leaking speed, formerly constant, roughly tripled to to 50 buckets a day. We do have quality electrical pumps, but nevertheless, it clearly is caulking time. Of course my favourite man for the job is Johnny the Caulker, my grumpy Mwanza caulker who was always on time, always working hard and so accurate that only now, after almost three years, we need to caulk again, where one year is the rule. At least, Johnny shares that honour with my stiffening efforts in the last phase of building, and not carrying heavy cargo as normal dhows do.
Philemon was supposed to bring Johnny with him to Jinja. Then we would sail to Dominic's Sese Island Banda to do the job, if only to have a save place to store the contents of the dhow while working. A week before their planned arrival in Jinja, Philemon started to report problems he had to get Johnny to the photographer and to immigration to have a passport made (a Tanzanian passport is a single sheet of ordinary paper with a number, your basic data and a picture). Johnny refused to come or simply did not appear where agreed. Philemon suspected that Johnny, a staunch weed smoker, might have suffered some brain deterioration, or that this should be seen as attempt from Johnny's side to raise his value. He proposed to replace him for the job with the constructor of our canoe. I had just inspected our canoe, found both botch and fraud all over (see next greeting coming). Moreover, Doi and me found Johnny, not a mobile phone owner, but getting to him through others, in perfect mood and willing to come. I told Philemon to take his time and bring Johnny. Philemon kept trying for another week, then said he wanted to give up. I conceded and Philemon arrived in Jinja one week too late and alone. Puzzling indeed. Philemon was annoyed about all no shows from Johnny. On the phone, Doi got stories about no shows of Philemon. Could he have a hidden agenda? What could be on Johnny's mind? Now, we would have a entire sailing trip to Banda without caulker to discuss it.
It became clear that Philemon absolutely had no hidden agenda, the puzzle of Johnny's brain remained. Neither Philemon nor Doi, who is a closer friend of Johnny, understood was had been going on. My conclusion: if we do not understand it, we should not bring him here, even though he is a legendary caulker. We should go for someone else. But who? How to find someone decent? We started to list Mwanza, Ukerewe, Jita caulkers and shipbuilders/repairmen who could tell a good caulker from a bad one. Philemon would be send on the mission. We set out some different things we could do. A lot of sighs and looking in the air. Meanwhile, in phone conversations with Mwanza everybody among the friends of Philemon and Doi seemed to have formed an opinion on what was the matter with Johnny, and the stories became juicier every day. I pulled the breaks on that rigorously: do not loose airtime! We do not need more stories!
At last, I phone for a bus ticket to Mwanza for Philemon, and Philemon prepared to leave.
"What would you like to try first?" I asked Philemon, thinking of the options we had listed.
"Get Johnny" 

Entebbe November 23: Johnny arrives

Johnny had last seen our dhow empty and
had never seen a dhow with beds, table kitchen, and fridge (there is only one on Lake Victoria)

Our friend Ben landed in Entebbe while we were waiting for Johnny. He will stay for two months.
Note the special chair we bought to host him (and to save our linen camp chairs). Ben is always sprinkling presents liberally. Doi go these impressive sunglasses! Because Ben likes to use smileys in email, I made him a customized one