Wally Smith was a man who was truly committed to his tree fruit farm. During the growing season, he knew that he could not neglect his charges even for a day. The five lines of sprinklers needed changing twice a day, 12 hours apart, even when it rained; the chickens needed to be fed and when we had a cow it needed to be milked every day.
We would go on Sunday picnics up Secrest or to Phelps’ cabin at Osoyoos Lake, and once in a while to the public park at Okanagan Falls, but we always left the group in time to change the sprinklers and feed the hens before darkness fell to make the responsibility cumbersome.
Once all the children left the nest, Auntie Kay felt that it was time to do some traveling. Knowing Wally as well as she did, she knew he would resist any planning for a trip, therefore she did the planning without his input.
She decided where she wanted to go, bought two round trip tickets for the event ( back then your name didn’t have to be on the tickets ), and told a lady friend about her dilemma and invited her to go if Wally decided not to.
The night before she was to leave, Auntie Kay told Wally she was going and would he like to go with her? Either way, she had to phone her friend. Sometimes Wally went and sometimes not.
One of the trips he chose to go on was to the Dutch West Indies aboard the Santa Mercedes in December of 1976. Wally kept a journal of the trip. I’m assuming they flew to Vancouver where the voyage began.
“Boarded at Vancouver at 5:30 PM, Saturday December 11. Stevedores were loading BC apples ( C grade Delicious ) bound for Venezuela. Aluminum ingots were also loaded.”
( Lairds note here; I’m told that Wally was greatly impressed with the fact that BC apples were being taken on this voyage! )
“Docked in Tacoma. The docks were large; small and large forklifts were running everywhere; also, huge straddle trucks for containers were moving about. On the dock were large 4 wheel drive Case tractors heading for Australia, sacks of dried peas, apples, and rough timber for Japan. Containers were being loaded on trucks and hauled away. Loading the ship continued into the night.
Friday Dec 17
Left San Francisco at 6:00 AM today. Dropped the harbor pilot at 7:40 AM. The ship was heading south off the California coast at 20 knots, about 23 miles per hour. We had bright sunshine, with a little swell. About 3 PM, the captain turned the ship around and headed north to accommodate a film crew taking shots for the Prudential Lines promotion program. The film director wanted sunshine on the swimming pool and the after deck ‘A’.
Tuesday December 21
We are off the tip of the peninsula of California and steaming along at 18 knots. Will arrive at the Mexican port of Mazanillo tomorrow at 6 AM. The name is pronounced Man-zan-ee-yo. We are 77 passengers, 32 men and 45 women, most are elderly Americans. Air temperature is 68 F, water temperature of 75 F.
Many of the passengers are going all the way around the southern tip of South America, through the Strait of Magellan and back to LA or Vancouver.
One of our table’s partners is a 91 year old Canadianized Englishman, formerly employed as an engineer. He is in fair health and is still very bright.”
( Laird’s note, Wally’s age is 76 at this time.)
“Dec 22
We are heading southeast under an overcast sky, sun shines through occasionally. Our 2 foot by 3 foot window gives us a good view on the starboard side. No land in sight, the sea is choppy and the ship rolls a little.
Dec 23
Boating down the Mexican coast, off Acapulco 5 or 6 miles at 10 AM. Temperature is 82 F on a dry bulb and 72 F on a wet bulb. Ten degrees spread indicates relatively low humidity. At 10:30 AM we saw several porpoises off the starboard bow. Cirrus clouds overhead with the sun filtering through.
Dec 24.
Spent half an hour with the 10:30 PM watch last night which was located forward on the top deck. The sky overhead was clear and there was some wind. We saw a starboard light at about 30 degrees, seemed to be a ship traveling southeast as we are.
This morning we are off the coast of Guatemala and El Salvador with no land in sight. Around noon we ran through a school of porpoises or dolphins, 30 or 40 of them seeming to frolic in the waves.
Today a list was posted of the ships cargo as well as a chart of the container stacking. To add to the list of the cargo already mentioned there is asbestos, wood pulp, bird seed, shredded coconut, copper ingots, and auto parts.
We saw three whales blowing water spouts this morning as well as flying fish.
We have a lounge on board called Club Andes which is kept very cool. It is usually full of tobacco smoke. I call it the refrigerated smoke house.
Christmas Eve.
We are hanging up our stockings tonight, red Christmas stockings which one of our children gave us as we left Vancouver. They were full of candy which we dumped out in preparation for hanging outside of our cabin door.
Christmas Morning.
Santa really came last night! Our Christmas stockings were filled to the brim. Yesterday I was a skeptic and now I’m a believer!”
Unfortunately, that is all that was he wrote of that journey, unless there is more stored elsewhere. I’m hoping but there is a lot of material to go through.
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