Down to the Sea

Boats, like horses, were once used for transportation; now they are mainly for pleasure. When it is your own boat, this is called cruising; when it is not, it is called taking a cruise.

Cruises come in all shapes and sizes, from the Caronia's annual round-the-world ($2,875-$ 14,000) to Eastern Steamship Corp.'s all-expenses weekend sprees starting at $59 between Miami and Nassau. There are special cruises emphasizing bridge (with Charles Goren), culture (Japanese brush painting and photography). And for the "adventurous"--meaning those with a hankering for hardship, seamanship, courtship or strong drink--there is something called a "Windjammer Cruise."

Beating through Bahamian waters this week, as they are almost every week of the year, were the schooners Yankee Clipper (197 ft.), Polynesia (151 ft.) and Mandalay (128 ft.), loaded with sun-peeled cargoes of businessmen, secretaries, airline stewardesses, honeymooners, second-honey-mooners, sexagenarians and swingers. Most of them seemed to be having a wonderful time. And all of them were making money for a tall, swarthy ex-submariner from Newark, N.J., who calls himself Mike Burke.

In 1947, Mike Burke was a smalltime building contractor in Miami named Mike Schwartz who had a 48-ft. sloop for weekend recreation. In time, he found he had more friends than he had room for and was both footing the bill and doing the work.

He sold his business, bought a 94-ft. schooner called Tondeleyo, changed his name to Burke, and went into the cruising game. "Now here I am with five boats, all going strong, catering to about 70 or 80 people a week all year round. I didn't plan it that way at all. It was just a fun weekend that got outa hand." Out of hand, that is, to the tune of $1,200,000 last year.

Boys & Girls Together. Prices for Burke's ten-day Windjammer Cruises through the Bahamas range from $185 for bachelor quarters (six men to a room) to $310 for deck cabins with private bath (only available on the Yankee Clipper). Inside cabins for two cost $210 per person, outside cabins $260. This buys everything, including one ration of 140-proof rum per day. The rest of the drinks are sold at about cost.

The Windjammer booking office does its best to match age brackets and interests. In addition to sailing, skindiving, etc., two of the interests that can be checked off on the application forms are "Boys" and "Girls." "Sometimes we tell girls who apply that on a different trip from the one they want, there'll be a better balance of boys and girls," says Burke. "Nine out of ten write back and say, 'By all means, I'll wait.' And guys will write in and say, 'I want a trip with a lot of girls.' That's fine by us. We let 'em know when we got one."

Shuddering Nature. It's not all this kind of call of the wild, though. Many middle-aged couples sign on for the informality and the chance to play the role of old sea dogs, and Burke's crews give them all the work they want--polishing brass, taking the wheel, standing watch. "They love watches," says Burke. "It's so shippy when they're awakened by a crewman at 2 a.m. saying 'It's your watch.' "

Sometimes, of course, things can get a bit too shippy. One Detroit adgirl still shudders at the memory of a cruise last Christmas on the Polynesia (promptly dubbed the Polynausea), which was complete with 12-ft. waves, several broken bones, plus a passenger who went berserk and jumped over the rail. On one hairy occasion, three missionaries were washed overboard, but the only passenger who seems to have been lost permanently is Miss Sara Reiser, 70, who disappeared last month during a walk on one of the Galapagos Islands--a port of call on Burke's round-the-world cruising brigantine Yankee.

But in a time when the Bahamas and the rest of the West Indies are suffering from creeping civilization --even on the best powder beaches, people no longer lie on the sand but on chaise longues, swim not in the ocean but in shoreside swimming pools, at night prefer the soft mechanical thunder of the air conditioner to the sound of the tropical breeze through the palms--Burke offers the uncertain pleasure of putting the escapist back in touch with elemental nature.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.