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AN ENTERTAINING
"BOAT-JANGLES" FOR MERCY
BY NANCY TERRELL FOR
WWW.ALLATSEA.NET
 I
met Michael Beans in 1988 while attending the Coral Bay Music Festival
in St. John and I will never forget it. Beans, as all of his friends
fondly call him, sailed into Coral Bay on a bright yellow island sloop,
Esperanza. With guitar in hand, he boarded his dinghy rowing
onto the beach where I was doing face paintings. I closed down shop,
listened to his music, and have been a Beans fan ever since.
Recently, we met again and pieced
together his 30-year stint in the Caribbean. "I come from the Great
Lakes region, so I have always been around water. I began sailing on a
Sunfish at the age of 11. At 16, I was sailing on cruising boats off
Beaver Island where I played music around the campfires, which launched
my musical career. By the time I was 18, I was playing the nightclubs of
Beaver and Mackinac Island, where I met Jim Sawtelle, a shipwreck
salvager and treasure hunter who hired me to work for him. He took me to
the Florida Keys on a working expedition and there I met his partner Mel
Fisher. In 1975, we headed to Haiti to salvage an old famous Canadian
schooner named Bluenose. It was there that I saw my first
island sloop."
Working the north-south trail from
Michigan to the Florida Keys, Beans eventually worked his way further
south to the Virgin Islands, beginning in St. Croix where he performed
at Pearl's and Beulah's Fantails. Live music and crab-racing were his
specialties as he became the house entertainer at the Wreck Bar. "Just
before Hurricane Hugo I bought my first boat,
Esperanza, a 1932
Tortola sloop, with the money I earned from my part in 'Dreams of Gold,'
a movie about Mel Fisher's adventure of treasure hunting and discovering
the Atocha. After our futile attempt to sail her to Venezuela,
my boat partner, G. Beer, and I began sailing around the U.S. and
British Virgin Islands. This is where my island touring adventure really
began, and it blossomed into a lifestyle that still continues today."
From the early days of the Coral Bay
Music Festival, he has been in many bands, including the Beans Traveling
Minstrel, The Hornswagglers, and the Seafarin' Turd Whirlers, performing
with numerous talented island musicians. "It became well known that
wherever the yellow boat sailed, the fun followed." He became a regular
at Foxy's Wooden Boat Regatta and The Sweetheart's Regatta, as well as
numerous other festive occasions in the Virgin Islands.
Esperanza
is now retired on the beach of Trellis Bay, Tortola, as a monument
to the shipbuilders of days gone by.
Beans went ashore to Marina Cay, BVI, in
1999 and created his show "Happy Arrr" as a way to raise money for his
next home, a classic 1971 Cheoy Lee ketch named
Zetwal. He
sails through the islands as a one-man band/boat-jangles performer,
flying his new pirate flag, "Show Mercy." He supports the cause of Mercy
ships - old cruise ships converted into floating hospitals that take
volunteer physicians and dentists to third-world countries. (Story on
opposite page.) "2006 will be a big year for me, as I will be releasing
a new CD called 'Pines to Palms,' a book titled 'Hidden Treasure,' and a
full-scale launch of my 'Show Mercy' campaign." For more information on
Michael's history, touring schedule, and availability of purchasing
CD's, you may visit his website:
www.beansmusic.com. All proceeds from his website sales go to the
Mercy Ship Organization.
It was good luck to reunite with my old
friend Beans, a fascinating entertainer and a Caribbean humanitarian.
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