Since the beginning of the trip I have tried to document things with a video camera, a digital, a point and shoot for prints and my aging Pentax for slides. The first two need no processing, just the prints and slides. The prints were easy with a lot of the automated 1-hr. developers just about anywhere, but the slides would have to be sent out to some distant developer and I didn’t want to risk that. I had taken over 200 slides and felt they would be my best record plus used in any talks we gave so I wanted things done correctly. The time came in Suva Fiji when I found a Fuji and Kodak lab within a block of each other both complete with full service on premises. Being an all American boy I choose Kodak and with joy in my heart took my carefully preserved film in its’ plastic bag with desiccant and gave it to the nice ladies behind the counter. Several days later I returned to pick up the slides and was told they weren’t ready now but would be in another hour, no problem, I will return. I did return and they produced 7 large boxes of slides and I happily gave them $90.000F and went back to the boat. They were my slides all right but as we looked through them it was evident that 80% of them were water or chemical spotted and 20% of them were not cut on the edge of the frame but in the middle so I had 2 pictures on 1 slide. Many others had cracked or bent mounting making them unusable. Well I was mad; my prized slides which I had protected so long ruined and no way to replace them. It was well after closing time and even though we had checked out of customs and were supposed to leave the next morning we had to return to the camera store.
I probably wasn’t in the best of moods that morning after fuming and dreaming about the problem all night as I asked to see the storeowner. My mood didn’t improve when told that he wasn’t about but would be tied up in a court case until 11:30 that morning. I showed my slides and vented some emotion on the sales people and the treasurer but could get no satisfaction and would have to wait for the owner. I really didn’t have the time nor did I believe the owner would return at the appointed time but left to kill several hours looking over my shoulder to see if customs officials were tailing me. Back at the store at 11:15 and of course no owner but was assured he would show up. At 11:45 nothing had happened so we started taking louder and demanding some action with or without the owner. During this time several yachties had come in with film to develop and we gave them the story (loudly) and sent them down to Fuji, keeping a running tally for the sales staff. At 12:00 we found out that the owner was in fact in the store but was in his office and couldn’t see us right now. Well……we had a "discussion" with the sales staff about getting him which emptied out the store of at least 6-8 customers that were there. I was then told that he would not come down but would talk to me on the phone. Well….. now he hadn’t had the best day just coming out of a court case but then mine wasn’t great either. Perhaps I was too abrupt when I shouted into the phone to " haul your (body part) down here right now, I want to talk to you" and slammed the phone down. A few seconds passed and he was on the phone again and I basically gave him the same message. Well he did come down, stormed into the store and as I tried to show him my slides he picked them up and threw them on the counter and insisted we go to his office. I said no, we would talk here in a public place when he stormed out again. The head sales lady told me he was really quite nice and we should go to his office and talk but I wasn’t going to do it. Figuring I wasn’t going to get to far with the owner no matter what, I started on the second in command in a constrained and easy manner. I simply told her that I had numerous legal connections in New Zealand, Fiji and New York where Kodak was based and would move to have their Kodak authorization and supplies removed. Pointing to the Dewey, Cheeham & Howe logo on my shirt I told her that it was the best known law firm in the US; all of these things being true (non Car Talk fans will need some coaching). She nodded unknowingly impressed. The end result, I got my $90.00 refunded 7 more rolls of film, but not an apology. I did find out that the spots could probably be partially removed by washing. Just another carefree day in the life of a cruising sailor.
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