We also had an engine room fire and had to sail a few days into Jamaca with no electricity which meant no lights, no fridge, and no cooking. The owners wife had stocked up on canned black olives which she said were very hard to come by in Mexico and we ate alot of them. In Jamaca we played hard with the locals at night while rebuilding the electrical system during the day. Jack spent some idyl time trying to hit on Errol Flynn’s grand daughter. In general it was a most productive week.
For some reason we couldn’t fine a chart of Panama in St. Pete but Jack scarffed up a page our of an old high school history book. As you could guess the weather was very bad comming into Panama, no shots were possible, and we were relying on his dead reckoning. It was on this trip I learned the principle of making sure you miss to the right or the left and then running down the coast to your port. We were all still relieved to be able to take a sight on the last evening.

After the Canal, we were leaving Panama on Christmas day. My girlfriend had cook one of her special 8 pound Galliano white fruit cakes. Jack, Elliot, and I ate the whole damn thing in one day.

In Coasta Rica we ended up staying for several days and i would like to go back. In Salina Cruz we were slammed by offshore winds from out of the mountains. We sailed just a few hundred yards off the beach in a lot of blasting sand and the worst possible chop. it was the only time I have ever taken green water in the cockpit of a center cockpit boat. We had a great Party that night in town, but coming back that night, very happy, I stuck my big toe in a u-bolt and fell over forward. That toe didn’t hurt then but still hurts now in bad weather.

In Acapulco, having arrived and anchored off a nicely populated beach, we were running in through light surf when Jack flipped the dink in front of all those people. We still managed to have a memorable time in town. After turning down a job on a small square rigger headed north, I flew back to St.Pete a couple days later. My girl said it was time to fish or cut bait, so we eloped to Georgia and moved to Texas to design and build offshore rigs. The whole process took less than a year but was certainly memorable. Though I have told many stories about Jack, and just wishfully assumed that he was still out there doing his thing, I hadn’s seen or heard a word until I saw this web page. I don’t know that we are refering to the same Jack Showers, but I’d be very surprised if we weren’t.

Will look for the pics and if I find them, will place them (somewhere?).

Mike

Lovely experience…. except when both Gennies packed up, after leaving the Canaries -so no freezer or stove (or power toilets) and we had to eat steak until it was too rotten. Dont talk about the toilets.

The then-ship’s-carpenter (I think Gino) disappeated one day out from Vilamoura and did not reappear until the Canaries (mal de Mer).
When it happened again on leaving the Canaries, I gave him one of the first transdermal plasters. He was fine after that.

Anyway, when the gennies packed up there was no electrickery to heat meat so Gino made a barbeque on deck and we burned teak to cook the food… must still have the pics somewhere.
Still have the cap with the logo and a copy of the layout of her sail plan done by Sparks & Stephens.

I kept sailing, transatlantic, Caribbean charters, Australia, Med, etc untill the late 90′s. Since then UK, France, Singapore and South Africa.

Nothing has been quite as amazing as the bullshit on the Eric Borgman. I dont know if you heard, but she burnt down back in the Virgins a few years later – resting off Jost van Dyke somewhere in a few 100 meters. I dont think many of the original crew were still on board (and no lives lost far as i know). Glory Days!

A lot of water over the dam since then. Got a job on a 110 schooner after the EB/PB and sailed back to Maine (where I was from) and then back south and off to Australia. Returned later to eastern Maine where I have been ever since. The EB/PB came to Bar Harbor Maine at one point, were you aboard at that time?

Drop me a line some time.
dirvin@acadiamarinesurveying.com

David Irvin

Can’t say I’ve ever sailed on as big as your schooner, and in fact I never got out of the Chesapeake. But I used to do a lot of J/24 racing there; in my younger days too. It was loads of fun and as you well know a huge challenge. Of course, being in the open ocean on a three masted schooner was no stroll around the park either.

Regards,
Tom