A bunch of us were sitting around a campfire, sharing our life stories. This just happens to be one of my absolute favorite things to do. When it was my turn, I told the campfire crowd I had a great funny sea story to share.
My boat was chartered to be the camera boat for filming a scene at sea of a popular soap opera. I am an astute enough businessman not to divulge exactly which soap it was. That might be business suicide.
It was a love scene (no nudity) on a sailboat, and my powerboat was the camera boat continually maneuvered around the sailboat to get all possible horizontal camera angles on the embracing and smooching couple.
These show folks don’t mind working hard and fast. We were in and out of the harbor twice that day, so the director and film crew could hightail it to the airport and get out on a helicopter to film the scenes from above.
By doing everything twice, they got all horizontal and vertical shots in varying light throughout the day.
The sailboat stayed out most of the day, so the soap opera stars were on the boat for a long period. Before leaving the dock, we were all talking about plans and concerns. Both stars were a bit worried about becoming seasick.
My crew member, Capt. Tiffany, told the stars her own seasick prevention is chocolate.
Now please bear in mind that Tiffany’s cure for anything has always been chocolate. Still, I raised an eyebrow because I know she has never experienced a single twinge of seasickness; however, I got it that she was trying to make the screen stars quit worrying.
The stars ate up the concept (literally), and Capt. Tiffany sent them off on the sailboat gobbling handfuls of chocolate.
At the end of the day, I asked the gal star if the chocolate helped. She thought for a moment and said, “Well, I guess it did. We kept eating it, and neither of us got seasick. The best part was how great we tasted for the kissing scenes!”
Show folks try to think of everything, keeping it all tightly controlled. Mother Nature, however, tends to shake her finger at folks who try to control everything, and on this day she was shaking fingers of dense fog.
I was truly impressed with the way the director studied conditions and considered everything in sight to be an opportunity of some kind.
There were little things he would make great use of, like the fact that a full moon was visible in the daytime sky whenever the fog dissipated momentarily. The director wanted a shot with the sailboat mast pointing directly at the moon. That’s good stuff.
But what I just about died laughing at was when the director and filming crew were aboard the helicopter and thought they’d make use of the fog by filming straight down while the fog seemed to open up as they descended upon the boat.
It was a great plan for a stunning visual. The problem was, they came down through the fog, right on top of the wrong boat, and scared the living daylights out of some very unsuspecting boaters.
Life is full of fun and surprises … provided we don’t die of fright.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
