Bananas in Bolivar

Monday 27th October 1975

Back on day work after a weekend off (Ho Ho) and spent the morning locking items up so as the locals don’t pinch them at Bolivar and washing down the deck (which were so slippery at one time it was hard to stand up). In the afternoon I did another tour at the wheel and took all the easily movable items out of the lifeboats. We had to move cabins today to the pilot’s cabin on the bridge so as the guards in Bolivar could have bunks. The pilot’s cabin vibrates a lot, is a lot smaller and is very noisy.

Tuesday 28th October 1975

This morning we sailed into Puerto Bolivar. On the way in I was told to look out for stingrays as some had been seen the last time the ship was here. However, this time we were out of luck. There were quite a lot of pelicans and they amazed me by flying so low over the water that their wings touched it occasionally, and they stayed at the same height even up and down the waves. I then broke out the flag for Ecuador, the house flag, the Q and the G (requesting free pratique and a pilot). The pilot boarded and we were soon moving slowly in past three other ships which were anchored off and then anchored ourselves. We appeared to be in a wide river estuary with mangrove swamps on all sides but on looking at a chart we were in a channel separating a large island from the mainland.

At 18.00 a group of us went ashore, the launch being signaled by one long blast and two short on the ship’s whistle. Once ashore about eight small children all came running around us, some just begging and others offering a shoe shine service. We walked along to the cries of “Soo Shine” and “dollar”. The houses were crudely built of wood and some were of 6”x2”x2” (approx.) mud bricks built in a wooden framework. Once off the main street the standard of housing really dropped, the shacks being built on stilts to keep them out of their own excrement and rickety catwalks leading to the doors. We then got a taxi to the next town that was much cleaner and more modern. We walked around looking in shops and an open market. However, it was about 20.30 and they were all closing down. We went into a hotel and had a meal and then on the way back the proprietor found us a taxi and revealed that the driver bringing us in had overcharged us by more than twice the amount!

Wednesday 29th October 1975

This morning we helped the crew open the cargo doors on hold 3 and hold 2. The watertight doors are very heavy and a chain block is needed to support the weight as the dogs are hammered loose then removed, and then again with the use of a lever that bolts on, to open them right up and a securing pin is inserted. Later barges arrived full of bananas. They tied up alongside the open doors and rigged boards up and into the holds, then proceeded to load the banana in boxes weighing about 30lbs each and carrying from 2 to 5 at once with the majority carrying 3. At 21.00 we weighed the anchor and moved alongside the quay. As soon as we had tied up the hatches the doors were opened and loading started and went on all night. 

Thursday 30th October 1975

All day was spent supervising the loading of bananas and keeping an eye open for stealing. Several people offered to buy my watch and all the time someone was trying to sell you items varying from marijuana to wooden carvings. I bought 2 llama wool ponchos and exchanged 2 cans of beer for a wooden carved statue. As each tween deck was filled I told the Bosun and then helped the crew to shut the hatches. The angle at which the boards were set for the men to load the bananas varied between 20 degrees to 60 degrees and I scared myself silly each time I tried to keep up with them as they run along as I was on my way down into the hold. I saw one chap drop 3 boxes of bananas, one of which hit another on the head and he fell about 10 feet into the hold, luckily landing on his feet and regaining balance, as he was about 6 inches from falling down into the next tween deck.

Friday 31th October 1975

With only 3A and 2A to complete Billy helped with the cargo supervision and I got a tin of white paint and started painting over the read lead “measles” in the port alleyway. Each time I looked up I could see I could see a tell tale patch of orange where I had missed a bit. By the time morning had finished so had loading and after dinner I went up on the bridge. At 13.00 I showed the Pilot to the bridge, took down the P and G flags and hoisted the H. By 14.00 the pilot had left and we were heading into the Pacific. The first job was to put back in place all the lifeboat gear and fire hoses etc. which had been locked up whilst we were in port in Bolivia to keep them safe from any thieves.