Nassau, Bahamas, Early 80s

Nassau, Bahamas, early 80s

The boat didn’t look like much. It was 110 feet long, a two-masted sloop with Chinese junk rigging. It was at the same dock in Nassau as the big cruise ships were and the comparison was stark. The cruise liners were enormous compared to our ship and were shining white and well lit in the night while our ship was small and dark. I got on board and, after introductions, found my berth and stowed my gear.

Some of the other passengers were already on board. The ship’s capacity was 30 passengers and there would only be 16 on this cruise. Three deck hands, a cook, a steward and the Captain and Mate made up the crew.

We sailed from Nassau the next morning for week of cruising the Bahamian islands. The cruise was fairly unstructured and we managed to find an anchoring spot each evening, usually near a palm-covered island with white sand beaches and clear blue water.

We sailed mostly in the lee side of the islands where the water was calmer. One morning we anchored in Governor’s Cove on Eleuthra Island. The town had a few colonial homes on the hillside overlooking the cove and some shops and a bar for the locals. We hiked over the crest of the island to the windward side where the surf was high. There wasn’t really a trail and we ended up in a low forest of scrub trees and prickle bushes. We stumbled out of the brush onto a wide sandy beach that was covered with naked people. There was a Club Med up the beach and we were at the far end of their beach. We played in the surf and did some body surfing but managed to keep our clothes on.

We were under power for most of time but did get the sails up every couple of days. The ship was rigged like a Chinese junk with the big square sails. There were no power winches to get the sails up so it was hard work getting the sails up but it was worth it. The whole mood on the ship changed whenever the sails were up.

One afternoon we anchored off of an unpopulated island and took the launch in to the shore. The group spread out over the beach and I sat waist deep in the sparkling blue water. I had tied the cooler to my ankle so that it didn’t float away and spent a couple of hours getting sunburned. The beach was that soft, white sand that you see in the postcards. There was none of the usual beach debris that you usually see, no shells, weeds or bits of driftwood. We were the only beach debris that day.

Barefoot cruising can be very informal and we would frequently climb out of the water, throw on a t-shirt and sit down for meals while still dripping. There was on couple on board however that would retire to their cabin an hour before dinner and emerge radiant, hair and makeup all in place, when the dinner bell rang. She had a different gown for every night and he wore a suit jacket and tie. They must have been confused about what type of boat they were booking.

We docked back in Nassau on a Friday afternoon and spent the evening wandering the bars along the waterfront. The waterfront was pretty safe. This was back when the buildings facing the water were all three stories with decks on the second and third floor overlooking the street. Small stores were on the first floor, restaurants on the second and bars on the third. There were the usual drug dealers and local suspects on the streets but they were kept out of the bars and we had a good time listening to some local bands.

After a week on the boat I was to spend a week in a Nassau hotel but the boat’s steward had quit the ship and the Captain had a vacancy that he couldn’t fill until the following week. Another week on the boat looked good to me so I hired on as steward. Duties included setting the tables, serving meals, tending bar and helping out the cook in the galley. Crew usually bunked together in the fo’csle but the passenger load was light so I got to keep my cabin.

First thing in the morning I would do the wakeup calls and get the tables set for breakfast. The cook was really good and there were never complaints about the food. There was fresh baking most meals, homemade soups and always fresh meats and fish. After I did the breakfast dishes there would be nothing to do until lunch. We were usually sailing during that break, off to another island.

I got to lead the shore parties for a couple of picnics. I would pack a lunch for everyone and load up the launch with food and drink coolers. We would have lunch on some remote beach and the tourists would ask all kinds of questions about local history, flora and fauna. I would just make up shit for answers and they seemed to be happy. One day I told them that pirates used to drag their ships up onto the beach for maintenance. The pirates would scrape all the barnacles off and reseal the caulking. I had the tourists searching the beach for clumps of barnacles stuck in tar that were scraped off of the boats. Of course, they never found any but it kept them busy scrambling around in the sand.

We did some of the usual stuff they do on cruise ships; we even had a costume party one night. But mostly we sat on the upper deck after dark, had beer and cocktails and watched the stars. One of the passengers had a guitar and I thought that was going to work out great for the evenings but he only really knew one song; The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald. We tired of that pretty quickly.

Beer was free for the crew, even temporary stewards. After the week was over and we docked in Nassau the Captain told me it was the only cruise they had led where the ship ran out of beer. And I made $85.

I recently had an opportunity to return to the Bahamas. It would have been interesting to see the changes over the last 25 years. Was the ship still sailing? I didn’t make the trip back. Dr. Window-Boy pulled up lame at the last minute and the trip floundered. Maybe next year.