Great site. It brought back many fond memories of the Skipper and Mrs. K, and of course the Romance. I sailed from mid –June 1972 to December 1972. During this time there were students from Beloit College getting credit for sailing; Ron, Dutch , Joey. During this period, a film crew from Michigan, Thom Thomas productions did a segment for ABC called The American Adventure. I would like to obtain a copy of this film since I’ve never seen it. We sailed in the BVI’s and made one trip to St. Barts.
I still have my sea bag that Captain Kimberley showed me how to cut and sew. We were anchored by the Bitter End in Virgin Gorda and the project was to cut a new sail on the beach of a small island that was owned by the Hickock belt family. I believe we were replacing the royal,and so we got the old sail for our seabags (# 5 egyptian flax, if memory serves me). Later that year, in Grenada we got to meet Mr.Bones, and his apprentice Joey. Bones was an accomplished shipwright who was doing several things for the skipper I seem to remember an insulated freezer for the upcoming trip to the Galapagos and Pitcairn Is. In addition to the freezer work and work on the starboard rail by the cat’s paw, Mr. Bones also was detailed to turn out a few belaying pins, and of course the one from the royal on the stbd. fife rail found its way into my new seabag (naturally,with the skippers permission).
The captain paid me two dollars a day. Heineken on board was .25 cents. This was all done on the honor system. Gloria had affixed a sheet of paper above the cooler. Every time you drank a beer you marked it down. Needless to say, my pay at the end of the trip was negligible, thank the good Lord for the generosity of the passengers. We sailed to Grenada and the Romance was continuing on to Panama and the Galapagos. Pitcairn and the South Pacific. I payed off in Grenada and soon found another berth crewing on a charter boat sailing from Grenada to Martinique (enabling me to launch a very successful French wine purveyors enterprise). Also during this time there was an editor from Travel magazine doing an article on the Romance. I think it appeared in March or April of 1973, I did get to see that article. Anyway, please give the Kimberly’s my regards and how sorry I was for having dropped the grate on the stove at the Baths. I had never seen the Captain so pissed of course it was cast iron and could not be straightened out.
I had no idea that the Romance was scuttled. She was magnificent and she had a driving force and strength that let you know you were safe and would sleep well at night.
Regards to all and any help with the ABC video would be appreciated.
Fair winds,
Guillermo (Bill) Turnbull
P.O.Box 920427
Dutch Harbor, Alaska. 99692
(907) 581-5812
arcticiguana@ yahoo.com
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