Ship 240 Travels to The Bahamas

In 1974 Ship 240 operated a recycling in a shopping center parking lot. People wanting to recycle could drop off newspaper, glass and cardboard. Prior to shipping the items to the recycling facilities, they needed to be sorted. Our ship sorted the dark and light glass into dumpsters and loaded semi-truck containers with newspaper and cardboard. Over the course of a few years, we earned enough money to travel to the Bahamas.

We stayed on Skipper White’s friend’s private island off the coast of Long Island. The island had one house, one boat house and a dock. Leaders stayed in the house, women stayed in the boat house and men stayed in tents. We dug men’s and women’s latrines on our first day. Water was scarce and therefore precious. Each person was allocated one gallon per day of drinking water. Bathing was done in the ocean off the boat ramp.

We had loads of fun swimming, snorkeling, boating, cooking over an open fire and star gazing. Local townspeople invited our Ship to the Saturday Night Rum Party. Promising to limit our intake to one glass each, we were given permission to attend. I think one or two marriages came out of that trip.

In the boathouse, I read The Dove by Robin Lee Graham. At the age of sixteen Robin sailed from California to Hawaii, and then kept going. He sailed solo around the world. National Geographic picked up the story and serialized it. Little did I know, Ken was reading the National Geographic serialized version in Wichita KS.