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A guest here on the Crystal Serenity lives in Arizona, but keeps his 77-ft long yacht at a marina in southern California. Although he uses it a mere 30 days a year, he has had it thoroughly redone & redecorated in what he called "1930s Hollywood". The yacht, named Scheherazade, sleeps 14 according to its owner.

Seems his love of the sea began as a boy, age 12 and back in 1957. His father took the three children on a three-week cruise from New Orleans on the combination passenger-cargo ship Alcoa Clipper (Alcoa Steamship Co, 8,500 tons, 95 all-first class passengers). Over lunch, he told me: "It was a great adventure for a 12-yr old. The captain treated me like his son, invited me to the bridge at any time and with an old sword ceremoniously made me a 'captain of the Caribbean'. I was fascinated by the food -- you could have anything you wanted. Myself, I took a fancy to appetizers -- so I began skipping the three other courses and ate only appetizers. Carlos was our waiter and quickly became a 'friend' to my Mother. But Carlos never wrote down our orders and invariably brought the wrong main course items. You'd get spaghetti instead of the steak you wanted or fish instead of the lamb. But my Mother insisted we all be polite and not say a word. Carlos & Mother actually remained friends for years. He had a great, friendly charm."

"We sailed from New Orleans and called at several Caribbean ports," he added. "But at Trinidad, we loaded lots of bauxite [used to make aluminum, Alcoa's main product]. But we were told then to close all doors & portholes. The bauxite created lots of red dust -- and it found its way everywhere. After loading, the Alcoa Clipper had to be thoroughly swept and vacuumed."

"The trip ended at Mobile -- and Dad had us driven to New Orleans," he concluded. "There we collected the family station wagon & drove to our summer cottage in Minnesota before returning home to Arizona. But I shall never forget that beginning of cruising for me on the Alcoa Clipper."