In the Virgin Islands I met a resourceful sailing couple who make their living creating decorative spoons from driftwood. After a final coat of varnish, the spoons are shipped off to galleries in New York and California. Other sailors put themselves in the shipping business . Recently , I saw him off Bequia, his hatches and ports sprouting pith helmets and palm-frond bags. His first mate was a sailing friend who was heading north to sell calabash fruit that he had carved into decorative bowls.
Some sailors build a career on a miscalculation.
Luke, an Irish sailor on a homemade boat, left Ireland with a young family. He kept a rusty threshing-machine engine in the bilge and sailed to Africa's Ivory Coast, hoping to sell the engine to some wheat farmers. When he arrived, he found more swamps than amber waves of grain. Inspired by bug bites and a sensible wife, he converted the engine to pumping water and sold it to a farmer to irrigate his rice pa ddies. In his gratitude, the farmer gave Luke a broken ice machine.