Autobiography - Thanksgiving 1974
Thanksgiving 1974 was a bizarre affair. Priscilla and I had been married for 10 weeks and I asked for a kitchen pass to go on a bareboat charter in the Bahamas with Kyle Ahrberg and his cronies. Somehow I got enough vacation time from Rust-Oleum after only working 9 weeks to get a week off. Priscilla would enjoy Thanksgiving with her ancient great aunts Gerry and Buddy in Ramsey, New Jersey.
Kyle had a friend Peter Kendall that lived in Florida, owned an orange plantation and had his own six seat plane with a pilot. Kyle arranged a charter through Caribbean Sailing Yachts (CYC) in Marsh Harbor, Abacos, Bahamas. Peter would fly us to the Bahamas if we could fly into Ft Lauderdale. Kyle and I and his college friend Tony Barr flew out of Chicago. Tony had a prosthetic foot resulting from a close encounter with a Metra train. He had been cocktailing with a few friends in Chicago and decided to play “chicken” with a train. The train won. Tony’s father was severely injured in a car bombing while in Tony was in high school. Tony’s father was in the middle of an ugly divorce with his trophy wife at the time. He had also been the mayor of Joliet for two years and owned over 3,500 apartments. When his father turned the key to start the car it exploded. Fortunately his father had not closed the drivers door and only lost a leg. No one was ever charged with the crime although Tony always suspected his step mother because his father had a prenuptial agreement with her that limited her payout in the divorce.
We climbed aboard Pete’s plane and flew to Marsh Harbor, Abaco. When we arrived, I was surprised that Pete stayed onboard the plane. He was returning to Florida to spend several days with his girlfriend. The sailboat cruise gave him the excuse to leave home for a week.
Kyle, Tony and I climbed aboard our 30’ sloop. We had ordered provisioning which included meals for five of seven days and beverages. The beer of choice was St Pauli Girl. After our first days sail we dropped anchor in a secluded harbor and watched our first Bahamian sunset. We toasted the moment with a St Pauli Girl. The company slogan was “you never forget your first girl.”
We sailed over to Hope Town and climbed the iconic candy stripe light house. The following night we anchored near Don’t Rock which is a narrow passage through the reefs. We were swimming off the boat at sunset. We saw a fishing skiff approach us with two Bahamian fisherman aboard. They came near us and called out “hey mon, this is when the big ones come in to feed.” Big ones? They are talking about bull sharks. We leaped straight out of the water and were back on board within seconds.
A highlight was finding a spot on the reef that was full of lobsters. We had some gig sticks and harvested many lobsters. We had lobster for breakfast, lunch and dinner for two days then started using lobster for bait. One night we had two fishing lines in the water and something hit them so hard it snapped one of the poles in half. We guessed it was one those “Big Ones” the Bahamian fisherman had warned about. We will never swim at night?
Pete flew to Abaco two days before we were scheduled to fly back to Florida. We returned to Marsh Harbor a day early so Pete could spend the night onboard the boat. That evening we were walking home from a local restaurant. Pete thought it would be funny to jump on my back for a piggy back ride. I thought it would be funny to walk to the side of the road in a third world country and fall backwards on top of Pete. Fortunately for Pete there were no spikes or broken glass where he landed. He never jumped on me again. Then Pete thought it would be fun to steal the only truck on the island. He did. That night we were riding in the dingy and Pete decided to put it into a series of real tight turns and almost sank it. Remember the big ones. Pete was not like the others.
We flew back to Florida in Pete’s plane and spent the night at Pete’s house and met his wife Gracie and his children. Gracie was a trust fund baby from the General Mills fortune. Pete had a beautiful home with a large swimming pool. We spent the afternoon drinking beer and swimming. The crew gave me a gift of the handheld compass I used everyday for navigation on the boat. They bought it from the charter company. I still have that compass 46 years later and use it on my sailboat Blue Heaven.
Two years later Priscilla and I and her sister Alison and husband Fred Dwelley went back to Abaco and charted a sailboat from CYC. In subsequent years we cruised in the Virgin Islands, Bay Islands of Honduras, Greek Islands. St Martin/St Barts and the Florida Keys.