SUPERSTITIONS

Hi all.

I would never have thought much about bananas on boats before but I must admit I am not so sure now.

The last four trips out on my stinkboat..tinnie..powered watercraft...coke can..etc :lol: I had a number of things go wrong. In each case my passengers had smuggled bananas onboard in there lunchboxes. Even when I realised they had bananas in my boat I could not bring myself to tell them to ditch the things. (They would of thought I was a Goose.)

These are a few things that happened.

Wacked my nose on the bowsprit when launching, blood everywhere.
Brother went flying when pedestal seat post broke.
Left ramp when noticed fuel guage was showing empty but was sure it had half a tank in it back at the house. Turned around, took petrol can up to servo and put 25 litres in boat. Still no change in the guage reading but still went out. ( later realised it was a faulty sender unit)
On the same trip had terrible noise from the rams when I power trimmed up.
Same trip drove boat up on trailer with a mate guiding me on. He says, "your right", but it didn't feel right to me. Checked under boat to see a 15 cm gauge in the hull where it had slipped off the skids.
Got distracted by some kids in the boat and took off with a burley bucket dangling 10 metres in the water, it went under the boat and hit the prop.
Told my mates 7 year old not to fish off the pod at the back in case he falls in, he ignores me and guess what, in he goes.( 80 feet of water, 20 knot wind, his fishing line lost and one upset kid.)

The boat was a new bowrider. (under 15 hours)

I mean it must have been the bananas fault, right! :shock: .......It couldnt have been mine :?:
Hey, who wants to come on a fishing trip with me next week? :wink:
ps) Leave your bananas at home please.

Until recently (due to pricing pressure) I always have bananas on the yak. They are a great source of energy. I still seem to catch just as many fish as those with me.

Hear are a few theories I have read on other sites

George Bush's dad was such a poor fisherman. It mentioned that during his highly publized yearly fishing trips he would hardly turn a reel. They enlisted the help of scientists and after the blood tests came back from the lab he was found to have high levels of a pheromone called L-Serene. This pheromone is known to put the fish off their tucker and the large concentration of it in his system was attributed to his fondness for bananas

In the old days they banned bananas as mixed cargo, therefore they had to transport them separately and the only ship owners that would do this due to their poor value was in old dilapidated tubs that were not really seaworthy and many would be lost at sea. So I suppose the belief is not justified in our modern boats.

Back when iron men sailed wooden ships, many a vessel put into tropical locales for reprovisioning, and among the foodstuffs taken on were copious amounts of bananas. In these were all sorts of bugs, spiders, and snakes which, once aboard, often lived just as happily among the victuals, bunks and bodies of the crew, and even called many a captains cabin home. Soon fevers and sores spread throughout the ship’s company and eventually to ports of call, including home. When the irate masters finally figured out the source of the scourges, word spread lickety-split that any form of bananas was prohibited aboard ship. To cement the edict, they deemed the fruit bad luck.

In the 17th century scurvy was a problem. Limes and lemons could be brought on ships to help prevent the scurvy. Bananas omit a gas that causes other fruits to ripen quicker. If the limes and lemons over ripened too early on the long voyage, sailor’s lives were at risk.

Boats loaded with bananas tended to be overloaded in the early days. On a rough day, the bananas could shift in the hold and cause the ship to capsize.