It is an undisputed historical fact, seriously, that bananas on a boat are bad luck. Sometimes very bad luck.

What kind of a banana bread nutcase believes that? Typical response, unless you are a boat owner. I’ve seen the signs along the boats moored at many ports on the Florida coast making it quite clear that bananas are not allowed aboard a boat.

Unfounded and goofy superstition you say? Nope.

Remember now, even though fishermen need an excuse when the day doesn’t go as planned and fish aren’t jumping into the boat, there’s much more to this fear of bananas on a boat. Simply put, bananas are bad luck. Any form of banana too, such as banana candy, banana nut muffins, bananas depicted on clothing, even Banana Boat sunscreen. In other words, anything banana is bad luck on a boat and that’s absolutely the last thing any boater or fisherman needs. Not even sliced bananas on your morning cereal before boarding a boat is acceptable.

The solid reasoning behind the boat ban on bananas goes back hundreds of years. Bananas were believed to be the cause of fires aboard cargo ships because of the high amount of potassium they contain. Nothing worse than a fermenting banana that kills other fruit, including food necessary for survival for the sailors of old.

The tales from the sea are horrifying! There’s documented instances of termites crawling out of banana bundles and chewing through the wooden hull of ships. You know what happened next! Down she goes!

There were spiders too that came out of banana cargo at night and delivered deadly bites to unsuspecting sailors. It doesn’t stop there. There’s hundreds, thousands of other instances scattered throughout history where bananas are to blame.

In short, any mechanical problem on any boat can almost always be traced back to someone sneaking a banana on board. And that’s not to mention the miserable effect on fishing. It’s no wonder that many guides and charter boat captains require a paying customer to sign a waiver saying they will not bring a banana on board.

No, I haven’t gone bananas. This is serious stuff!

History is filled with stories of “banana boats” that never reached their destinations. Many times all that was left of the doomed craft was bananas floating on the open sea. Fact. Not superstition. Not as far as a fisherman is concerned.

No bananas on board is a hard and fast rule for real fishermen everywhere. Pull a banana out for lunch and you can expect it to get tossed overboard immediately. Fishermen take no such chances.

You might be thinking how silly all this is, but did you know there was about 1,000 bananas aboard the ill-fated Titanic?

I rest my case.