Memory Lane
 

It’s been a couple decades since I dug out my old log I keep while crewing on a 52’ ketch designed by Samuel Crocker in Kennebunkport ME, from Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco. So much forgotten and fun to refresh the memory on the good and bad of the trip, which started in 1975. I’m up to day 28, when we dropped anchor in Colon Panama, while waiting on customs and working on details to get a pilot and additional crew on board to transit the canal. One thing I never forget was how clueless the owner was about sailing, which was ironic as he bought a beautiful sailboat to spend his retirement on. Best stop along the way by far to this point was Jamaica, the worst was Gitmo in Cuba, after Captain Nit Wit (our nick name for the owner) didn’t take on enough water and food to allow for light winds for days on end forcing us into his old posting to stock up.

You are very lucky to have been able to have that experience and to have experienced it when you did. I believe that if you were to re trace your steps today, you’d find many of the ports that you visited to have changed so much you wouldn’t even recognize them. At least that is my experience after spending lots of time on boats in the BVI’s as a kid and then re visiting them when I was older.
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Was a great trip until captain nit wit turned into a real a-hole, got off in Acapulco, only to learn without the captain’s permission to leave the boat, I couldn’t get the paperwork needed to leave Mexico. Cab ride from hell back to the boat to kiss his navy ring to get something in writing. Before at the airport an American took pity on me and said you should get back in time to fly with me in my Cessna to Mexico City, where you will have an easier time getting help. Second white knuckle cab ride back to the airport, great plane ride to Mexico City, where a women and her daughter asked me why so glum, as I was spending my last few bucks on some beer, wondering WTF I’m going to do. Long story short these former Americans living there now took me in for the week it took me to get the necessary papers to fly home.

Here is the story they ran on us stopping at Gitmo.