Anecdotes

Since 1975 Anything Can Happen and Did...

On her first cruise in 1975, the 50-foot cruiser that forms the heart of the one-day tour passed to close to Costa Rica's maximum-security San Lucas Island prison. "The nervous guards fired shots across our bow," says Cecelia. "The tourists thought it was arranged entertainment, and applauded."

Adventures with Sea Creatures

• Three years later, the crew had to subdue a passenger after the Calypso ran alongside a huge manta ray! "He grabbed the boat hook and tried to leap on to creature's back, to ride it in style like Moby Dick's Captain Ahab," says David.

• Once another huge ray surfaced under the Calypso's sturdy hull with a shuddering thump off San Lucas. It was so big that its "wings" actually lapped out of the water on either side of the vessel, which is nearly 20 feet wide. "As it moved off, we could see its shadow for a long time under the surface," relates Cecelia. "It looked like the space shuttle Enterprise under water."

• The Calypso crew also fondly remembers a giant whale shark basking off the Tortuga Island point, multiple sightings of turtles mating in the calm, luke-warm waters, thousands of frigate birds floating on the updrafts over Guayabo Island, and pilot whales in a feeding frenzy near Negritos Islands.

Fond Memories

• But when the Calypso staff get together for a reminiscence session, it's the passengers who often star. "Six couples (that we know of) met aboard Calypso and later married," Cecelia notes, adding that one wedding was held on the beach at Tortuga Island with passengers and crew as witnesses.

 

Humorous Passengers

• Calypso's schedule is less strenuous than the most nature-based tours, so it's a natural favorite with older travelers, and even handicapped passengers in wheel-chairs have enjoyed the adventure. Calypso's oldest passenger was a hale and hearty 92-year old who was in much better shape than his 67-year-old friend. He amused everyone aboard when he dived off the Calypso's transom for the short swim to Tortuga beach. Come on, kid, let's go he called out to his younger traveling companion.

• The crew also recalls the day in 1983 when the dinghy carried a well-oiled bikini clad 400-lb. man to the beach. When the vessel prepared to up-anchor after lunch the gentleman proved so difficult to maneuver back aboard that the crew seriously considered leaving him in the dinghy and towing him all the any back to Puntarenas.

Trials and Tribulations

• The crew keeps a sharp watch over the snorkelers and swimmers but occasionally one eludes them. "Once in 1982, when we were about to leave Tortuga, we discovered that one of our passengers - the Soviet Ambassador, no less - was missing," says David. We found him swimming two kilometers from the beach to... who knows where? Maybe back from Russia?
• Sometimes it's the crew that lightens up the tour. Neatly dressed in crisp white uniforms, the crew members always wear swimsuits under their tropical shorts. During one trip, the vessels captain, Misael Mejias, doffed his shorts at the beach as usual, only to discover he had forgotten to put on his trunks that morning. He quickly slipped his shorts back on hoping the passengers hadn't noticed. They had.

History Made

It was in 1980 that Calypso began landing on the beach at Tortuga Island for lunch which was served on a blanket in the sand picnic-style. Today it's served on tables under large umbrellas and the meal - designed by Cecelia, a prizewinning cook and former head chef at a Greek restaurant in California - has been praised as a "traveling feast" in many publications. David too is a gourmet who graduated from San Francisco City College's hotel and restaurant management program.

Calypso has been through a several phases of modernization. The first in 1976 included a new deck and new lower cabin as well as the cocobolo railing built by the now-deceased artisan widely known as "Don Octavio." The next year another cabin and a second deck were added, along with a mast which started life as the boom from the three-masted schooner, Miliset. The schooner sank in the Puntarenas Estuary in 1971 at the age of 110 and the boom, a solid piece of Northern White Spruce, was salvaged. In 1981 the red cedar hull was rebuilt to a more "slippery" design for efficiency.

The vessel's 91-year-old marimba player affectionately known as "Abuelo" was also "modernized." He was plagued by cataracts and the company footed the bill for eye surgery. The feisty old musician says he's always smiling now because he can see the pretty young passengers in their bikinis. He spent 40 years playing street music on Puntarenas Calle de Turistas; Calypso is his first steady job.

Always Improving

The Reids are always trying to keep the tour fresh. In 1986 to celebrate Hailey's Comet the Calypso offered a champagne night cruise complete with a lecture by an University of Costa Rica astronomer and a dawn breakfast of Eggs Benedict on the beach at Tortuga (the head chef, M. Malaiseau of Chicago's Ritz-Carlton Hotel, sent his chef's hat to the Reids in tribute to the excellence of the food on that cruise).

In 1987 the Calypso-made non-tourist trips carrying supplies to the Cousteau Society's research vessel, which was filming Coco island. The Reids cherish memories of long wrangles with the society's staff over who stole the name "Calypso" (which is also the name of the society's world famous flag-ship).