Paula's Paradise

September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. This is the official day to practice saying “arrrggghh, matey”—and other plank-walkin’ talk—an occasion dreamed up by a couple fun guys who were bored one day, but had plenty of Pirattitude. They told funny guy/author, Dave Barry, about it back in 2002, and he put it in his Miami Herald column. The rest is shiver-me-timbers history, and people all over the world now use this date as an excuse to swagger about in their swashbuckling finest and to think about stirring some rum into their coffee. Or maybe that’s just me. Anyway, it’s all about having fun—and got me thinking about Grand Bahama’s own brush with fictional pirate fame.

Filming for some of Disney’s Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides took place on Grand Bahama Island, back in 2006/2007. It was a thrill to see The Black Pearl and Davy Jones’ Flying Dutchman cinema-ships up close and to catch random sightings of the cast and crew out and about on the island.

We were all swept up in the movie-making excitement—especially my daughter and her friends, who had a great time devising their own buccaneer ensembles in which to search for treasure and adventure during Ye Olde Playtimes.Halloween at our house that year included a rather commanding and fierce-looking Pirate Princess known as Sparrowla—an imaginary long-lost sister of Captain Jack Sparrow:Here’s to sailing the Seven Seas of Imagination and Laughter for as long as you can! Yo ho, me hearties, yo ho!