From the ArcaMax Publishing, Weird News Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/weirdnews/s-172095-301042
PANAMA CITY (UPI) -- The captain trying to break the record for
circumnavigating the world in a speed boat blames the propeller that
broke shortly after he left Barbados on bananas.
Pete Bethune, a New Zealander, told the Charleston, S.C., Post and
Courier that bananas have been bad luck on shipboard since the days
when most boats were powered by sail. That was because bananas give
off gases that cause other fruit to ripen and become overripe more
quickly -- a potential disaster in the days when sailors depended on
fruit to prevent scurvy.
Bethune said that the person who brought the bananas on board the
Earthrace was a landlubber, a passenger who paid to join the first leg
of the race.
"He didn't know any better," Bethune said. "So we decided to not throw
him overboard."
Bethune said he hopes to do his Barbados-to-Barbados circumnavigation
in 78 days, breaking the record for powerboats and doing it entirely
with biodiesel fuel.
But the bananas, or the broken propeller, have put him behind schedule
as he limps toward Panama.