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Legend says that if you are born within the sound of a fog horn, you will belong to the sea all your life. I do, and the fact that almost everyone in my family loves to sail or have been “mariners bold” has helped.
By the time I was five we?d sailed out of New York to the Caribbean. My father was a chemical engineer, and had been sent down to establish the rum industry on an international scale. We island hopped, finally going through the Panama Canal at the end, and so began the voyages.
After reading an article in the New Yorker Magazine that the Colossi of Memnon were to be moved along with the two temples at Abu Simbel, Egypt I planned a six week trip doing the usual tourist sites first. Before I boarded a government boat later that week (and I think I was the first American woman to travel alone with goats, chickens and locals on deck), I went over from Aswan on a felucca (a simple sail boat that has sailed the waters of the Nile for centuries) to see the tomb of the Aga Kahn carved out of one perfect slab of white marble. When I arrived in the Sudan later that week, my dragoman had a cousin who met me at Wadi Hafa and the adventure to the Colossi began.
I sent the first charter flight out of St. Louis to Athens with Professor George Mylonos who had discovered beehive pyramids in Mycenae. My trip followed, and my cousin and I sailed on a Caique through the Cyclades of Greece, winding through the islands and learning history first hand. There were six of us, a guide and crew and we stayed on various islands each night ? Tinos, Delos (just to visit as there was only a caretaker and his goat ), Santorini, Paros and Anti-Paros, Naxos and Myconos.
In my office three blocks away from the pier in New Orleans I could hear the calliope as the Delta Queen announced her sailing up the Mississippi?.?steamboat?s a comin?? This extraordinary sternwheeler will soon be retired. Of course I shed a tear?the memories of the clang of her historic bell and the sounds of Dixieland jazz will remain. I was on board for the christening of the Mississippi Queen who will continue the legend.
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Cartan Tours were the first, I think, to use a hydrofoil to transport passengers. I was on the departure from Honolulu to Lahaina, Maui and we bounced from one side of the ocean to the other in our passage. They discontinued the trip, and now the Hawaiian government is working on inter-island ferry transportation.
Obviously, when the large hydrofoils were introduced across the English Channel from Dover to France guess who was on board? Wow! That was one big hydrofoil and I almost felt as though I was in a huge saucer with water spraying out on either side. The seats were arranged theatre style and they had everything from a snack bar to souvenir shop.
I am a huge fan of “Dr. Who”, and I’d had an opportunity to see the original land hovercraft used in the show during the ‘70s. The technique was adapted into a magnificent craft going across the English Channel. I liked it even better because it was like floating across the Channel on a cushion of air, and that was just fine with me.
As a child I played on the Empress of Britain and the Empress of Scotland. My family had built them and owned the Allan Line. I thought everyone’s family owned ships! When WW2 came I watched them sail off with Canadian troops. The world had changed.
Cruise ships have changed. I was on the maiden voyage of the SS FRANCE, and I thought it was probably the most beautiful and glamorous ship I’d ever seen. The stairway leading down into the main dining room provided every lady with a dramatic entrance. I saw it many years later when Norwegian Cruise Line had bought and renamed her the NORWAY. As I boarded the ship the first thing I saw on the right hand side was a soda dispenser, and when I went to shake the hand of the Captain I indicated the machine and said, “That has to go…” I never saw it again.
When you cruise now it’s far more relaxed. You can climb a wall, ice skate, have a massage, swim in a variety of pools, learn how to fold table napkins or what wine goes with what food, improve your game of bridge, spend hours in a cyber café catching up on e-mails or take a seminar on stocks and bonds. There are suites larger than the average home, balconies and terraces or just an inside cabin with no windows but a good price.
In December of 2009 a massive 220,000 ton ship will be launched by Royal Caribbean. As the size of these mega ships grow, piers have to be built and/or remodeled to accommodate them, new ports of call mean that when the ship calls the occupancy of that area can double!
Somehow, the rowboat that took us into the Blue Grotto at Capri, the felucca in Egypt and the outrigger I learned to handle at Moorea, Polynesia are almost like comfort food…
