Bananas on Board

[Cliffhanger]

What is it with bananas on board? My wife accidentally brough some bananas on the boat last weekend. Literally 5 minutes after we discovered them one of the props fell off. WTF???

[floater88]

Good question. Here on Lake Ontario if you bring bananas on board a salmon fishing trip the rest of the gang is likely to toss you overboard.

[Student_Driver]

Think the origin of the superstition relates to diseases carried by bugs which came on the ships with fruit: bananas.

[GordMay]

Seafaring is one of the world's oldest occupations, so it is only natural, that in times where inexplicable events have happened, superstitions have played a major role in providing reasons for their occurrence.
Aside from their peels causing many comedians to trip and fall down, bananas have long been thought to bring bad luck, especially on ships.
More ➥ https://www.boaterexam.com/blog/2011...rstitions.aspx

[SV Siren]

It must be a thing as even Snopes has given this a "Legend" rating...

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/banana-ban/

[valhalla360]

Seems appropriate:

Day-o, day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Me say day, me say day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Work all night on a drink of rum
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Stack banana 'til de mornin' come
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Come, mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Come, mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Day, me say day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan' go home

A beautiful bunch o' ripe banana
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Hide the deadly black tarantula
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Day, me say day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Come, mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Come, mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Day-o, day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Me say day, me say day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home

[Apollo19.5]

Many theories to it origin. One is that bananas produce/release ethene which ripens it. When in close proximity to other fruits it will send them off very quickly, so in th early days, the sailors worked out that having bananas aboard would send the rest of their stores off quickly. Another theory is that because bananas float, when a boat when down, it was bananas that were left floating with the wreckage and thus throught to be the cause by those that found it. Finally from a personal perspective, I have twice not finished an ocean race due to equipment failure (broke a boom and another shook a rig out) and both times it was later found that someone bought bananas aboard. Why take the risk!

[XtaSea]

I carry them. Eat them. Make sure the tossed peels make it to water.

I had more mishaps when I did not have any bananas. Hmmm

[JPA Cate]

Well, the cut stalks "bleed" for a while, and that fluid will stain fabric cockpit cushions, but they the stalks were always welcome aboard Insatiable. However, we did dunk them under water first, to dispel insects and arachnids. The bananas tend to come all ripe at once, but there are lots of ways to preserve them, including banana chips and marmalade. ...Oh, and giving them to other yachties, just like a native! ;-D

Ann

[MicHughV]

I went offshore fishing with some guys not so long ago...and my wife had packed me a lunch in a small cooler. Without knowing it, she had placed a banana in there for a mid day snack, as she was not aware of banana lore.

A few hours later, 50 miles offshore, I opened my lunchbox, and you would have thought WW III was about to erupt. That banana went flying thru' the air, accompanied by a string of curse words, I had never heard before. For a moment, I thought I was going to follow the banana thru' the air.....but thankfully, cooler heads prevailed...

No banana's allowed on a boat!!!!! Fact or fiction, who cares....leave the banana's at home!!

[DMF Sailing]

Hmmm...

When I buy bananas, I peel them, chop them into 'chips', put em in Ziploc bags, and they go straight into the icebox in their individually packed and zippered bags.

When I want a banana, I take the bag out of the icebox, and put it in the sink, where it defrosts until I can eat the banana. I take it out of the bag and put it on my plate. I eat the chips with a fork.

That takes care of extra garbage, potential of slipping, attracting bugs, making other things rot, and sticky goo getting on surfaces, including my fingers.

Added plus:

It might partially inoculate the boat against the curse.

[Bill Seal]

If the chips are frozen, just drizzle some Magic Shell chocolate syrup on them and have a Balboa Frozen Banana.

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by Bill Seal

If the chips are frozen, just drizzle some Magic Shell chocolate syrup on them and have a Balboa Frozen Banana.

Nice!

[chrisr]

i've had crews who were totally strongly vehemently anti-banana.

for myself i have no concerns. these days it's just the owner & me and we have bananas all the time

i believe the superstition comes from the spiders (like BIG tarantulas !) that would come onboard in the bunches when a ship loaded bulk bananas. such would cause mayhem on a night watch !

cheers,

[MicHughV]

folks...you can dice this and slice this any way you wish.....but banana's on a boat are bad news.....no rhyme nor reason for this...

when I was in college....
a math professor told us..
a minus times a minus is a plus...
a plus times a plus is also a plus....
but a plus times a minus is a minus..

he went on" there is no mathematical theory behind this, no proof, no fact, but this...
this is the only way it works.

and so it is with banana's....