Big Blue Boat, This Is The Sea-Ya

“Family comes first” is a value many families try to instill in their kids. Growing up I came from a large family- not in the fact that I had some ridiculous amount of siblings, but more or less the connectedness of a large family. Image the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, only with Cubans- and then you have met my mother’s side of the family.

You could imagine in a family based from grandparents who were Cuban escapees the stories would be interesting- they can range anywhere from “when we went on that vacation a couple years ago” to “back in Cuba,” yet some of them are never completely finished until the pieces are all put together. The best family stories in a large, connected family like this one are the ones that are told separately, at different times by different story tellers, to create one picture.

This story about being lost at sea began twice- once, many years ago, and once again when an artifact from that adventure was found. My grandmother recently moved houses, thus we found all sorts of treasure and clutter from decades and decades ago. One item my grandmother passed on was an old bag phone to her only grandson, Mario. He does robotics and she thought he could use it as just scrap material, something he could take apart and put back together- for younger readers it should be noted, a “bag phone” was one of the first cell phones. It looked like a land line phone, had a keypad to dial, and was connected to a large battery and had an antenna and was in a bag users could carry around. This particular phone, though, nobody wanted to destroy after we found out the origins of this old phone.

My uncle Mario starts the story one afternoon at lunch with the family, holding the bag phone in his hand…

Years ago his father,  my grandfather, had a yacht named the Sea-Ya that they would sometimes take out to travel. This night my uncle, my grandfather, my grandmother, and their two best friends went out to sail to the Bahamas. It was beginning to get dark and they had still yet to arrive on the islands, the sun was setting, the sea was getting rough, and a storm was rolling in. According to their map and compass if they continued north they would get to land in time to not get caught at sea in the night, yet as the hours dragged on there was still no sight of land. My grandfather and uncle checked the maps, checked their compass, and yet could not figure out how they had not hit land yet- they should be close to the south sides of the islands. Then the sun set, darkness descends, and the storm rolls in. My grandfather picks up the bag phone from the dashboard/steering of the boat and goes down the stairs.

My grandmother interrupts- she had gone down to the hull only to find her friend rapidly praying with her rosary, noting it was almost comical how panicked she was.

The story is once more interrupted, only this time a side note by my uncle- about another time he was interrupted. Telling this story to family in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he was interrupted by my grandfather’s brother, who said “wait! You do not have part of the story!” My uncle did not understand, and so he continued “when your father went downstairs with the bag phone, he was calling me! He said, “Carlos! We are caught in a storm! We are going to sink! Sell all my belongings!”

The story continues- my grandfather emerges back up from the hull and places the bag phone on the counter. The compass’ needle spins and jerks around, and my grandfather and uncle gave each other a look of panic. Both realized their maps had to be off if the compass being used was incorrect the entire journey due to the battery affecting the compass. So, no longer knowing what to do, they continue sailing. Off in the distance, some time later, they see one of those large cruise liners, and with hope they pick up the radio. My grandfather looks at the boat in the distance and radios in, “Big Blue Boat- this is the Sea Ya, come in,” and they get a response- “Sea Ya, this is the Big Blue Boat.” They go on to explain their situations and ask for a location. The comedy in the situation is they give a location in a way that is unusable by the Sea-Ya due to its outdated map. “No.. no, we need latitude and longitude.”

Finally sorted out, they realize not only were they not south of the islands, but were in fact over 100 miles north of their destination. They made it to land eventually with this epic tale at sea.

After telling this story, a silence fell over the room as we all just stared at this old piece of technology sitting on the table. An artifact found by chance in a drawer in a basement. The incredible thing, that I think many people who are not close to their family fail to realize, is that stories so intertwined and interesting like these go completely unnoticed sometimes. All my cousins and the younger generations have wished somebody could take the time to seek out all these stories and write them down, because in a family like this the stories are not only intriguing, but sometimes just unbelievable.