Pirates’ life: Brushes With Fame in the Bahamas

        

Posted by: Editor on Feb 17, 2006 – 10:55 AM
newsandinfo  LUCAYA, Grand Bahama Island – In a secluded cove, a ghastly gray ghost ship festooned with howling sea monsters awaits the likes of Johnny Depp, Bill Nighy, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom and the rest of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” cast.
On a recent January morning, however, the only character resembling a pirate aboard The Flying Dutchman, the ship featured in Part 2, “Dead Man’s Chest,” due out July 7, is a Disney goon threatening to send a bunch of tourists down to Davey Jones’ locker for pointing cameras at his prop.

No point in risking the plank when Depp’s Capt. Jack Sparrow isn’t even around. We forget the scallywag, hoist our Jolly Roger and set out to splice the main brace with a ration of grog.

Filming on Grand Bahama of Disney’s wildly successful “Pirates” (Part 2 and Part 3, which opens in 2007) was set to resume a few days after my visit, and has unleashed a cascade of pirate metaphors and promotions on the Islands of the Bahamas, a breathtaking archipelago 50 miles off the coast of Florida. Locations have included this island as well as the Exumas, part of the Bahamas Out Islands. Filming also has taken place elsewhere in the Caribbean, including Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Though the actual sets are closed to the public and security is tight, every resort, tchotchke shop and colada hut here stands ready to capitalize on pirate mania. Pirate hotel packages abound for families and couples. The pirate museum in nearby Nassau, a favorite excursion for families who arrive there on cruises, seems invigorated. And residents of Grand Bahama tend to have stories about brushes with “Pirates” fame.

Take Greg Vincent, a Welshman who operates bonefishing charters based at the Pelican Bay hotel. Vincent worked as an extra, he said, donning the military uniform of an East India Company militiaman. A less-than-glamorous 15-hour day of filming at sea followed. The rumble of passenger planes overhead often interrupted filming, while Vincent shouldered an 18-pound gun in the heat. A fellow “soldier” fainted, he said.

The fishing boat captain also was tapped for his special expertise. He provided director Gore Verbinski with a fisherman’s stew of uncleaned conch, sardines and squid to spew from a sea monster’s belly during a battle scene.

Vincent said he dyed the squid yellow and bleached some of the chum to create the proper appearance of a sea monster’s half-digested diet.

“I want a (film) credit,” he said, added with a grin, “Chief of guts.”

During my stay, I opted to try bonefishing sans sea monster guts (we used shrimp on our hooks).

A 63-year-old taxi-driving grandma named Paddy, a former paralegal, said she had spent months driving makeup artists and other behind-the-scenes crew from their hotel (most are staying at The Westin at Our Lucaya) out to filming locations, including a 60 million-gallon, open-water filming tank operated by the Bahamas Film Studios at Gold Rock Creek.

Paddy described getting her picture taken with Depp and other “Pirates” stars as bright spots in what have been some brutal years on storm-battered Grand Bahama. The island suffered direct hits from two hurricanes in two years and took another blow from Hurricane Wilma last fall. Remnants of the hurricanes’ wrath were still visible. Shingles were missing from some of the finest resorts. And a handful of empty properties in Freeport awaited renovation.

“I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly,” Paddy quipped while burning rubber up the battered Grand Bahama Highway.

Though it’s hard to spot the films’ stars – Depp reportedly is staying on a yacht while the others are in private rented homes – some of the less recognizable pirate actors have been known to hang out at hot spots here including Yellow Tails at Pelican Bay.

For Joseph Garvey, the “Pirates” sequels spell more tourists piling into the Pirates of Nassau Museum, in the nation’s capital, where Garvey plays Captain Argh!, ushering kids aboard a 75-foot pirate ship replica called Revenge. He spins tails of the Bahamas’ most famous pirates – Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, Calico Jack – and the pirate hunters commissioned by the King of England in 1718.

Other tales of pirate lore on Grand Bahama come from nature guide Wellington Clark, a father of five who grew up in a tiny village here. Clark, who earned degrees in biology and political science, works for Grand Bahamas Nature Tours (www.gbntours.com) and leads treks through the Lucaya National Park out to Gold Rock Beach. At sunset, a glowing rock several hundred feet offshore once lured merchant ships into the shallows, where pirates pounced, he said.

Clark led my group on a 90-minute morning kayak through pristine mangroves. Enduring a rare cold front that pushed temperatures down into the 50s this day, we pressed on, paddling against a strong head wind and shouting for all to hear, “Shiver me timbers.”

By J.M. Lawrence/ Special to the Herald
Thursday, February 16, 2006
     

  

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