The Nassau crowd used to put together a May Cruise for families and a June Cruise for men only with its accent on cigars, rum, fishing and the absence of shoes, razors and reminders
not to belch in public.

For me, this summer has been a time of looking forward and looking back.  My looking forward may be a bit presumptuous, but as a grandfather, it’s my duty to brag about my grandkids, all of whom I’ve told you on more than one occasion are dear and special. At press time I was busy talking on Skype—what a great invention that is—to daughter, Jody, who was keeping me up to date from Germany on the sailing exploits of her daughter, Christina. This young lady was tapped by US Sailing for the Olympic Development Team and she’s been racing in Istanbul, Turkey at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship enjoying intense coaching and competition. When I look at pictures of her fearlessly out on the wire of her 420, I catch my breath. I’m not much for airplane travel, but perhaps I could change my mind in time for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
When you get to my age, it seems that a great deal of life is in the rearview mirror of my mind’s eye. I had a special treat recently when an old friend and accomplished entertainer Frank Mills sent me a copy of a book he has written about another of our dear friends from Bahamas days, the late John Morley. The book is called My Travels with Morley. It could have been subtitled: The Man Who Couldn’t Talk Straight.
Long time readers may recall a piece we ran many moons ago on “Morley-isms,” the name we coined for the odd malaprops John downloaded from time to time. He had a circuit crossed somewhere and mixed up words and phrases on a regular basis. Some of the results were real beauties. After a while, Macgregor Robertson, owner of a boat called Nutcracker, started writing them down. Here’s an example: “your trust is mistrayed” or, “the house has a spinal staircase,” or, “I have an alcoholic stove,” or, “it’s better to have loved and left than never to have lost it all.” I agree with Frank that Morley probably didn’t know how funny he was.
The book really takes me back; he captured the essence of what it meant to cruise the Bahamas with a bunch of Bahamians in summertime. The Nassau crowd used to put together a May Cruise for families and a June Cruise for men only with the accent on cigars, rum, fishing and the absence of shoes, razors and reminders not to belch in public. Once the ladies figured out the winds dropped in June, which made for quieter passages to some of the far flung places on the itinerary like Dollar Harbour and French Wells, they demanded that the May Cruise be held in June. The men capitulated, but never got around to changing the name of the exercise. Sir Geoffrey Johnstone, the owner of a sportfish called Skylarkin’ was the Admiral of the cruises.
I delighted in Frank’s telling of stories of a simpler time, back when we all had more hair and there were more fish in the sea. With that, I’ll share a favorite Morley-ism: “Thank you, my captain, thank you for the memories, you know my favorite memories are always of the past.”
With this issue we say good-bye and good luck to our very talented editor, Marilyn Mower, who will be missed.
Louisa Beckett, well-known in marine journalism, replaces her with the September issue and the start of our 39th year. We look forward to beneftting from her strong background in the industry.