Paradise Island, Bahamas, (July 1974 to September 1978)
Paradise Island, Bahamas, July 1974 to September 1978
Luke Maura was born at Mercy Hospital in Miami on July 22, 1974. Soon after her discharge from hospital, Sandra flew to the Bahamas with Luke and moved into Michael’s home on Paradise Island.
Below are photos of Michael and Sandra with Mike Jr., Chris, and their newborn, Luke.
Our family visited Sandra and Michael from December 30, 1974, to January 5, 1975, at their home on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
Sandra’s and Michael’s next door neighbor on Paradise Island was Martica Clapp. Martica was a Cuban whose actual name was Gloria Martha Alberni Argilagos De Mola. She was born on July 4, 1927, and friends called her the Cuban “firecracker,” as she was born on the 4th of July. 14 years before 1975, in 1961, Martica had been divorced from her first husband, Bronson Hartley, after a 12 year marriage.
Martica had met Hartley in 1947, when Hartley was 27 and an underwater diving guide, and Martica was a 20 year old international model and a sophisticated socialite. On their first date, Hartley warned that they could not stay out too late because some seahorses at home were expected to give birth at any moment and he had to be there. Martica had thought, ”Here is someone who has interests other than what most other men have.” They were married two years later.
Bronson Hartley, who made his own helmet and pumps, was a protégé of American naturalist and explorer, Dr. William Beebe (1887 to 1962), and a contemporary of Jacques Cousteau.
Martica and Bronson soon acquired a vessel they named the ‘Ark’ and started underwater diving tours into Harrington sound from Bridge House opposite the Bermuda Government Aquarium. Martica acted as crew for a while, lifting the heavy diving helmets on the shoulders of divers. Later, they bought two surplus WWII liberty launch vessels and used one of them, Carioca Bermuda, to do tours in Harrington Sound.
Hartley, with the help of Bermudian shipwrights from St. David’s (Rattary), took the canvas cabin off one of the liberty launches, built the hull up 2.5 feet, steaming and bending the planks himself, put a deck and cabin on it, and sailed to Nassau, Bahamas, in 1958. The tour was originally called Hartley’s Deep Sea Diving. The business thrived and In 1982, Hartley handed over the Nassau operation to his eldest son, Christopher. Chris conducted the Hartley’s Undersea Walk.
Hartley continued to operate his helmet diving business in Flatts Village at the Coral Island Hotel in Bermuda every summer, and in Nassau, Bahamas every winter till 1996.
In 1975, Martica was 46 years old. Sandra was 30. Martica and Hartley had divorced in 1961. Martica had not thought that Hartley’s running one business in Bermuda and her running the one in Nassau could enable her to raise a family. In 1962, Hartley met his second wife, Harriet (nee Brown). They continued living in one of the houses on their property on Paradise Island and Martica lived in another.
Martica and Sam divorced in 1961, as Martica had not thought that Hartley’s running one business in Bermuda and her running the one in Nassau could enable her to raise a family. In 1962, Hartley met his second wife, Harriet (nee Brown). At the time of Sandra’s and Michael’s marriage, Bronson and Harriet lived in one of the houses on their property on Paradise Island and Martica continued living in the main house.
One of Sam Clapp’s guests in 1968 was Bill Hitchcock. In the book, Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD, The CIA, The Sixties and Beyond, the authors, Martin Lee and Bruce Schlain write:
In the spring of 1968 Hitchcock and acid chemist Nick Sand journeyed to The Bahamas, where they stayed at the spacious mansion of Sam Clapp, chairman of the local Fiduciary Trust Company. Clapp was a college chum of Hitchcock’s and they had been doing business together for years…Hitchcock took full advantage of his unlimited borrowing privileges at Fiduciary. At Clapp’s urging he poured over $5,000,000 into unregistered “letter stocks” associated with the Mary Carter Paint Company, later known as Resorts International…an organization suspected of having ties to organized crime. Resorts International proceeded to build a casino…called Paradise Island. It was new year’s eve 1968 and the guest of honor at this gala event was none other than Richard Nixon.”
The Clapps had many celebrity friends and guests. In April 1975, one of Sam’s guests was Eric Clapton, who came with his girlfriend, Patti Boyd. Clapton had returned to performing in January 1973, at the Rainbow Concert in London, after recovering from a heroin addiction. There, he had met Patti Boyd, who separated from George Harrison later that year to be with Clapton, although they didn’t divorce until 1977. In her autobiography, Boyd described their stay at the Clapp’s property:
In April 1975 Eric was advised to leave the country for a year for tax reasons, so we went to the house of my friend Sam Clapp, on Paradise Island in the Bahamas… It was everything the island’s name implied… We had a lot of visitors, including Ronnie and Krissie Wood, and Mick Jagger… One morning I woke with a searing pain in my tummy… The doctor diagnosed acute appendicitis. He wanted to operate immediately because he was afraid my appendix might burst… eventually I had it done, and all was well. Life on the island was idyllic - every day was another perfect day in paradise, and at night we would walk on the beach, our feet kicking up tiny phosphorescent fish that sparkled in the moonlight. I could have stayed forever, but Eric hadn’t wanted to go in the first place and, with his creative personality, developed island fever. He was drinking heavily and wrote a song during that time called “Black Summer Rain.” I couldn’t understand how he had come up with such a dark title in such an idyllic place. A tour of New Zealand, Australia, and Japan came as a welcome diversion for him.
By 1976, the retail store and lumber sales at Maura’s Bay Street store had closed and were consolidated at its Shirley Street location. Soon after, on June 10, 1976, there was a fire at the business that Michael operated with his family in Nassau. The fire burned for hours and did $3 million damage. Following the fire, Michael and his brothers, Donald and Larry Maura, along with two other managers of the business, acquired the assets that remained with an investment of over $2 million, and rebuilt Maura’s.
Over the next 17 months, the store was re-built as a larger facility, occupying 16,000 square feet. The new store had 16 departments, housewares and gifts, Lawn and Garden, Appliances, Hardware, Paint, and Toys. Michael installed Sandra as the manager/buyer of the giftware department of the new Maura’s store in Nassau. Michael served as President and General Manager, Donald Maura as Vice President and Purchasing Manager, and Larry Maura as Manager of the Wholesale Division. They are pictured below with the other officers and managers of the business.
Below are photos of our family at Christmas 1976 in Ft. Lauderdale, with Sandra and Michael Maura, and Leif Kubina and Luke Maura.
During the re-building, Sandra participated in decorating the new store. In the photo below, which appeared in the newspaper in the week following the re-opening ceremony, she is shown on scaffolding, painting a mural for the new toy department.
The newly re-built Maura’s Lumber and Hardware re-opened on November 10, 1977, with a VIP tour of the store by the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Lynden Pindling (Prime Minister from 1973 to 1992). The photo below shows Michael and his father at the re-opening ceremony.
The newspaper in Nassau featured photos of the new store’, above, and the tour by Prime Minister Pindling, below.
In the photos below, Sandra is speaking with PM Pindling’s wife.
In the first photo, below, Michael is walking with his father at the re-opening. In the second photo, Michael is guiding Prime Minister Pindling through the re-opened store.
In the photos above, at the opening of the “new” Mauras, Sandra is shown talking with the wife of Prime Minister Pindling.
Below are “glamor photos” that Michael arranged for Louis Feldman, a friend of his in Miami who had introduced him to Sandra, and who introduced Sandra to Haridas during a visit by him in 1973, to take of Sandra to promote the thrift shop she operated at the new Maura Lumber.
In February 1978, Sandra travelled to Toronto. Leif was 8 years old. Luke was 4 years old. In March 1978, David accompanied Sandra when she returned to Nassau for her divorce hearing.
Sandra and Michael attended David and Maureen’s wedding in Canada on August 28, 1978.
Sandra felt isolated in the Bahamas. As she later described it to Baba Hari Dass, she felt like a bird in a golden cage. After attending David’s and Maureen’s wedding in Canada, Sandra separated from Michael and moved, first to Ft. Lauderdale, and then on to California.
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Sandra assumed sole responsibility for Leif and Luke.
