Dann Lewis

Shortly before cocktail hour at the Current Club on the day I had acted as a lifeguard for Andy and his men, Captain Joe dropped by the office to tell me that “Andy really appreciated your watching out for his boys in the water, it was good therapy for them and something that they don’t get to do very much in Canada.”

“Anything for our guests, Joe,” I replied. “But tell me a bit about your friend Andy, one of his buddies has what looks like a fairly recent wound in his shoulder; he was exercising it in the water and getting teased about being ‘careless’ by some of the other men.”

Joe looked a bit uncomfortable and glanced around to make sure there was no one withing earshot. He then explained that he had met Andy in Miami when he was day sailing off of Miami Beach and advertising the Bonfire Restaurant with an insignia on his mainsail. Andy had chartered with him for several years and had been comfortable with Joe. “He tries to be normal and relax on vacation once in a while…..Andy’s fairly high up in the Mafia in Canada, and has to get away once in a while.” “He’s always been straight with me, pays his bills and is good to all his friends and family….so I like him.”

A couple of days later Joe told me that Andy wanted to sail to Nassau on the “Bonfire” on Thursday, stay overnight at Yacht Haven, and have his plane take them all back to Canada from Nassau. “Could you give me a hand on the way down?” he asked. “Weren’t you going to the Big Island anyway?” Always ready for a sail, I agreed. I figured I could do my errands on Friday and catch the afternoon flight back to North Eleuthera.

As usual, Thursday was a bright and sunny day with a fine northeast breeze, perfect for a beam reach down the chain of islands to Nassau. Andy and his men loaded their gear on the Bonfire and we all set off right after breakfast.

After we cleared Current Cut under power and were on course for Current Light, I took the wheel while Joe supervised the guests and got the sails up. We bore off for Nassau and a short while later, a couple of Andy’s men brought several duffle bags up on deck and proceeded to pass out handguns and ammo to their buddies. Joe brought up a trash barrel with a few weeks of beer and liquor bottles which became floating targets for volley after volley from the men lining the port side of the “Bonfire”. The game of marksmanship lasted for several hours, interspersed with debates on who was the best shot, and by the time we reached Nassau the artillery was packed away, and Joe and I were thanked for a wonderful trip!

This was obviously a sail that I would never forget….and as they say, in the Caribbean the Carnival Never Stops…NEVER!

By Dann Lewis - May 27, 2008

Eleuthera, Bahamas: The Current Club was nearly full to capacity on warm Spring day, thanks to eight rather tough looking men who arrived the previous day on a DeHavilland Dove all the way from Canada. “Andy”, the owner of the aircraft and obvious leader of the group was a friend of Captain Joe “Bonfire” Edwards who had been day sailing his ‘48 schooner from our dock for several months. Joe had asked me if a group of men would be welcome at the Club, since our normal clientele tended to be couples. I welcomed the extra business, and didn’t think much of Joe’s offhanded comment “that’s great, some places won’t take Andy and his men….”

The group had been a bit overdressed for an Out Island Resort, sporting dark suits and black shiny shoes at dinner after their arrival, but were well-behaved and turned in early.

The next morning one of the men came into the office and asked where they could find a good swimming beach…I gave them directions to a beautiful stretch of beach with a gradual slope into the turquoise waters on the opposite side of the island from the Club. Some 45 minutes later a swarthy member of the group came into the office and said, “Andy would like you to please come over to the beach.” I took one of our golf carts and the two of us set out for the beach party. As I pulled to a stop, Andy approached me and rather sheepishly said “most of the boys can’t swim so good, and we’d appreciate it if you could watch when they go in the water in case there’s a problem. You can swim good, can’t you?” he asked anxiously. I assured him that I could, and would be glad to act as lifeguard while they enjoyed the water. I thought to myself that hauling one of these guys out of the water would be some feat, because the smallest one appeared to outweigh me by at least 100 pounds…

Fortunately, I was not called upon to rescue anyone; my mere presence seemed to be sufficient for the men to relax and splash around for nearly an hour. When they had enough, I was thanked profusely and gratefully escaped back to some mundane paperwork at the Club.

For a multitude of reasons, the Carnival in the Caribbean never stops. Stand by for “Andy” Part Two.

By Dann Lewis - May 23, 2008

In his later years, Howard Hughes was known for being secretive and eccentric. His wealth enabled him to retain staff who were quite successful in shielding him from the press, process servers and the merely curious.

When Mr. Hughes and his considerable entourage moved from Las Vegas to Nassau, Bahamas in the wee hours of the morning in November of 1970, the fact of his arrival was noticed and widely spread throughout the Island within hours. The advance planning for his move from the U. S. to this off-shore location was extensive, as were the “renovations” that had taken place on the eighth and ninth floors of the Britannia Beach Hotel, where he and his key assistants and security staff were to reside.

Other staff, such as his nine pilots and their families were in rental houses in a modest middle-class neighborhood less than a mile from from the airport. While the somewhat reticent pilots were either on standby at the airport or busy shuttling back and forth to the U. S., their spouses and children were quietly integrated into the neighborhood and inevitably talked about their nomadic experiences facilitated by the whims of their husband’s employer.

At that time, I was involved in negotiations to form Bahamasair with Out Islands Airways, the major fixed base and charter operator at Nassau’s airport. Some time prior to the Hughes presence on the island, the president of Out Island Airways told me that they had a customer who wanted to lease their main hangar, and asked if that would complicate the Bahamasair negotiations. I saw no major difficulties, but asked to see the lease before it was finalized; and soon discovered that the space was to house some of the six aircraft in Howard Hughes personal fleet. Ultimately it was decided that only half of the hangar was required, and the Hughes representatives insisted that a line be painted delineating the space under Hughes lease, and the agreement clearly stated that under no circumstances were any Out Island Airways personnel or third parties (meaning my Bahamasair pilots, flight attendants, and maintenance crews) to step over the line or otherwise trespass in the space rented by Howard Hughes…..

Early in 1972 the entire Hughes contingent withdrew from Nassau with virtually a moments notice. As was reported by the spouses of the pilots, they were notified at noon to pack up, retrieve the children, and be ready to leave the Island no later than 6:00 PM.

The Hughes Nassau invasion ended as quickly as it had begun, and the next we would hear of Mr. Hughes was from his new residence in Nicaragua.

By Dann Lewis

In the 1950’s and 60’s the (then) British Colony of the Bahamas was a magnet for colorful characters from many parts of the world, including supposed or true ex-military notables, soldiers of fortune, titans of business, celebrities, rogues of various stripes and others seeking an escape from Life or the Law, or just a peaceful place in the sun. Many of these “expatriates” kept a fairly low profile while others were of a more flamboyant nature.

The following is a short list (but by no means more than the tip of the iceberg) of some of the individuals who passed through, lived for a time or visited regularly in the Islands in the Sun: Burl Ives, Sloan Wilson, Craig Kelley, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Sydney Oakes, Sir Patrick Hennessey and Howard Hughes.

Visitors to the Bahamas during this period may have known some of these characters or run across them in the course of their Island Adventures. Others may be surprised to learn of what was going on unnoticed during their travels! I will recount some of these goings on in future posts, and invite any readers to contribute their own recollections as well.

Stand by for some stories that are wildly colorful, document the birth of modern tourism as we know it, and are unabashedly true!

By: Dann Lewis