Bananas

TPD211

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Dec 31, 2003
Messages
360
I heard that here in Florida you dont take a banana with you fishing as it is considered bad luck.<br /><br />Has anyone else heard of this?<br /><br />Any other "wives tales" to pass along?
 

jsfinn

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Nov 26, 2003
Messages
1,093
Re: Bananas

That's a big one. I went on a charter in Hawaii a couple of years back. The captain of the boat next to ours at the dock wouldn't let anyone who had a bannana for breakfast on the boat. He said it was bad luck... I'd guess restricting people on your boat is bad for buisness.. ;)
 

jklett

Cadet
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Messages
29
Re: Bananas

The banana thing has something to do with a banana boat and ghosts. I don't remember the exact story, but a lot of captains(especially old salts) will not let anyone on board with bananas. An excuse I've heard for getting skunked is that someone smuggled a banana aboard.
 

Franki

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Feb 16, 2002
Messages
1,059
Re: Bananas

LOL, <br /><br />years and years back (like about 35 of them), my father worked on a big boat shipping bananas away from the plantations in africa...<br /><br />Guess he is lucky to be alive.. :)<br /><br />Although from the stories he used to tell me,.. they had a bad time of it quiet often back then.<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki
 

JoeW

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Nov 8, 2003
Messages
664
Re: Bananas

When I was a kid, my mother wouldn't let any of us kids eat fish and drink milk at the same meal. She said she had learned all of her life that the combination was poisonous.
 

wilkin250r

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Feb 9, 2003
Messages
570
Re: Bananas

Not quite boating-related.<br /><br />What types of things did your mother teach you? Don't take candy from strangers, treat others as you want to be treated, ect...<br /><br />I know a gal, her mother impressed upon her from day 1, "Do not eat bananas in front of old men."<br /><br />She didn't figure out why until she was 16.
 

gaugeguy

Captain
Joined
Jun 4, 2003
Messages
3,564
Re: Bananas

"if you don't stop playing with that thing, you will go cross-eyed" :eek: My friend Brian had a lazy eye, I wonder what his mom told him :D <br /><br />I have heard the banana thing before also, don't know where it came from.
 

kenjudy1

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Jul 17, 2003
Messages
43
Re: Bananas

A lot of comercial fisherman believe it is bad luck Just like you do mention or talk about horses, leave a hatch cover upside down or whistle.These were enought to get you thrown off the boat or fired. Ken
 

jtexas

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Oct 13, 2003
Messages
8,646
Re: Bananas

"Bad luck havin' a woman aboard, sir."<br />"Be even worse luck not to have her."<br /><br />--Pirates of the Carribean<br /><br />Actually, it's a little known scientific fact that bananas absorb water - a single banana in a marine environment can absorb enough atmospheric moisture to wreak havoc with the captain's weight and balance measurements, causing a vessel to ride low in the water, affecting speed and fuel efficiency, or even in some cases capsize a small merchant vessel. In fact, the famous wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald has been attributed to two bananas secreted aboard by a crewman known to have been suffering from a potassium deficiency. The sinking of the Titanic has also been linked to a banana puddi
 

ChrisMcLaughlin

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
387
Re: Bananas

Bunches of bananas can hide various poisonous spiders and a few scorpions. Try sleeping on a trip from any where far away with a cargo of bananas.
 

jimchere

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jun 30, 2003
Messages
321
Re: Bananas

I remember being in the eastern mediterranean a few years ago, on the bridge of a frigate at night. Some merchant seaman, bored, with an accent, did nothing but clog up VHF channel 16. All night long, saying on the radio for hours on end, banana banana banana banana banana............. Suppose it could have been a demon or something.
 
Top