Bananas: Bad Luck or Good Eatin?

[dannc]

The Hiscocks have a video/movie that shows them eating a bunch of bananas at sea.

They had a bunch of bananas, literally, and they had to eat them all as the fruit was going bad. They would take a couple of bites out of the good portion of the banana and throw the rest over board. Good thing this was over a half century ago or the EPA and MARPOOL would have been after them.

I was kinda getting sick watching them eat all of those bananas.

Later,
Dan

[Pete7]

Why didn't they bake a cake with them and make bread they would have lasted much longer like that

[donradcliffe]

Whenever we got a whole stck of bananas, they would all ripen within 3-4 days of each other. I would peel and slice them and set them out on cookie sheets under the dodger. After a day in the tropical sun, they would last a long time.

I never worried about bananas, women, or leaving on Friday...

[Cheechako]

Never heard of Bananas being bad luck! I have see=n some videos of some creepy things crawling out of them though!

[tikirawker]

Its a fishing thing. so as long as you don't fish from your boat scientifically speaking you should be OK.

[Delancey]

Went sailing once on someonelse's boat. Another guest brought bananas. I had never heard they were bad luck before but someone mentioned they were. We sailed, got to the beach, anchored, drinks were made.

I watched the guy who brought the bananas onboard slip and fall on his way down the companionway. He caught his nose on the bridgdeck and suffered a compound fracture right before my eyes. What a bloody mess that was!

[SVTwilight]

My wife keeps these around....

[Rick Williams]

I think that's a fisherman thing because the only time it was an issue was on a charter boat that wasn't catching anything so when I pulled out my banana there was suddenly a perfectly good reason why. I assumed it's an excuse for bad fishing and treat it like all other superstitions as something to be ignored.
That said, I'm never starting a trip on a Friday. That just goes without saying...

[rajsach]

My wife has a Howler monkey as an emotional support animal. She must have it at all times when she sails. The monkey needs bananas. My wife needs the monkey . I need the wife . It's a vicious triangle . Not sure what to do but we need to get this banana luck thing resolved quickly

[Bird Dog]

Strictly forbidden on any fishing boat. Bananas = guaranteed failure for that day's trip if not the entire tournament. In my world it is a certainty that a single banana will result in forever being labeled as "that idiot" who brought a banana aboard - time does not heal this wound. Moreover, it is likely the banana will eliminate any future fishing invites . . . ever. Worse, even if the banana is discovered while slipping lines and the boat is retied and the offending banana consumed on land the curse remains. Bananas cannot cross the gunnel. Period. If a banana is discovered while leaving the slip on our way out for a day of fishing we turn the boat around and do something else for the day. Cruising? Spin me up a banana daiquiri.

The one other irrefutable no no is red headed women and fishing tournaments. We love gingers! The more the merrier! They are welcome aboard anytime other than fishing tournaments.

Hope this helps. You have been warned, don't screw with the fishing gods. Good fishing.

[seasick]

We routinely set off with an entire stock of green bananas. We keep them covered in a black plastic bag to shut out sunlight and to catch the dripping sap. Keep the stock hanging free from hitting anything.

As needed, we remove a hand of green bananas, dip these in seawater and leave in the sun. These will ripen rapidly while the hanging bunch remains green.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by goat

#1. Women too! Seriously? Bad luck? Make your own luck.
#2. See above.
#3. Banana hammock. No, really, a swinging hammock keeps fruit fresh longer.

goat

mesh hammock for fruit.

[Tom and Maje]

The first time we heard about bananas being bad luck was during our sailing lessons. The reason stems from old, old ship wrecks (17th-18th century). Every time one of the ships was found wrecked, there were bananas floating around it. The skin of the banana becomes hard in saltwater and doesn't sink.

So now you know. We don't carry them, but that's mostly because we rarely eat them.

Maje

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Bananas plus cereal, sugar and bread are bad luck. They cause obesity, diabetes and heart and vascular disease.

You will have better luck to live a longer life if you leave the bananas on the shop shelf

Disagree. Bananas are a great fruit. They are often a baby's first real food. They are full of potassium and fiber. They come in their own compost-able package. They are the most sold fruit in the world (overtaking apples in the 1960s). And as a free bonus, they are a beautiful yellow colour.

If you are looking for something to take off the shopping list to live longer, remove the beer, booze, and smokes first...and anything with processed white sugar.

As for the bad luck issue...most superstitions are based on fact.
As you know, bananas rot quickly and you will get fruit flies. Imagine a fishing vessel before refrigeration...there would be no way to eliminate the flies...they would just continue to flourish until the crew went mad from them.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Why didn't they bake a cake with them and make bread they would have lasted much longer like that

That was my thought, but if my memory is working, they were also quite sick of bananas at that point since they had been eating so many bananas. They had at least one bunch/stem that had many dozes of small bananas, not 30,000 bananas, but more than enough for two people to enure.

Later,
Dan