I sailed on Johnny Depp's ship

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Or: "My Nautical Weekend"

The Lady Washington was in town to film a documentary for The Discovery (or History) Channel. (I contacted the extras casting agent, but was not selected.) Lady Washington was Intrepid in Pirates of the Caribbean. After filming, she stayed in Blaine harbour for a few days.

Yesterday a friend and I took a self-guided tour of the ship, then jumped in the zodiac for a trip out to Point Whitehorn. I thought my friend was going to fish, but instead he just hung out. In the meantime, I made my first solo dive. I’d imagined diving amongst the rocks offshore, but the water was too shallow for diving so we anchored out a little way. Turned out it was only 22 feet, but I just wanted to get underwater. I saw several dungeness crabs, many very small sole, and a rather large medusa. The vis was about 20 feet at first, but when the tide started coming in it deteriorated to about 8 feet very quickly. Since it was difficult to see, I decided to go topside after only 20 minutes and 1,000 psi.

Today I went back to Lady Washington for a three-hour tour. We cast off at 14:00 and motored out of the harbour into Semiahmoo Bay. After heading out for about an hour, the captain ordered the sails to be rigged. It was quite a long process. No doubt the sailors of old would have had it done in a fraction of the time. But the sails were set, and it was good to be under sail. We tacked toward Point Roberts for a bit (never got close to it) and then turned around. Several sailing and motor vessels came out for a look at this tall ship. Heading back to Blaine we were making about 2½ knots. That’s about what we were making while tacking, but it seemed slower because the wind was at our back.

As we approached the Semiahmoo Resort, we fired the deck cannon. Must have been a surprise for the wedding party on the shore.

My friend in Tennessee used to live in Aberdeen and Hoquiam, the Lady Washington’s home port, but she never visited the ship. She’s quite jealous of me. :smiley: I bought her a sweatshirt and a nice card from the ship for her birthday present in November. I also bought a monkey’s fist choker, and I’m going to try to learn how to make them.

So I motored in the zodiac, dove in the ocean, and I sailed on “Johnny Depp’s” pirate ship. Too bad I didn’t take my little gaff-rigged dinghy out to round it all out.

All in all, a pretty good weekend. :slight_smile:

2

This is the most misleading thread title ever!

Think of all the poor dopers who are going to click on it thinking they’re going to get “the inside story” on Depp. And it’s about a boat.

3

Aw, c’mon! The Lady Washington was Johnny Depp’s ship in Pirates of the Caribbean, and I did sail on her today!

4

Either you didn’t understand my post in the least or your 2nd post is trying to whoosh me. In any case, I’ll let someone else explain it to you.

5

Aw, c’mon…he said Johnny Depp’s ship, he didn’t say that Depp was ON it at the time.

JFTR, the Lady Washington is often in the area. She likes it here. [sub]Which is to say, I’ve been on her too. A beautifully restored ship, and very yar. And all those nautical terms. All I know is, she is gorgeous![/sub]

6

Yeah, I knew what it meant. If he had been on Depp’s ship (assuming he has one), I would expect a thread along the line of “I sailed with Johnny Depp this weekend…Woohoo!” :smiley:

7

I didn’t expect Depp was on the ship at the time, but I did expect the ship to be owned by Depp at some point (even if it wasn’t owned by him anymore).

Neverthelss I think this was cool.

Brian

8

Diving solo? Tsk. Not such a good idea. You should try to find yourself a partner.

9

Solo diving is not recommended; but it’s growing in acceptance, and is no longer considered taboo. There was an article in a recent Dive Training magazine that talked about it. This was a very conservative dive. The water was shallow and the dive was terminated when the current picked up and visibility deteriorated.

People seem not to like to dive up here. The visibility isn’t that great. Most people go down to Mukilteo or Oak Harbor, which is quite a drive. Or they’ll go up to Canada, perhaps catching a ferry over to Vancouver Island. I didn’t want to spend hours on the road or on a ferry (not to mention the expense), and wanted to use the zodiac for its intended purpose. I also kayak around Point Whitehorn, so I knew what to expect in terms of current. While I didn’t realise it was so shallow so far out (I thought it might be 30 or 40 feet), I was still within a safe distance from the shore; and I knew that the current would carry me toward land. I also had my friend along, to help me with my gear. (No way to zip the drysuit without help.)

10

Glad you had a fun time!

Now, can you get the Gilligan’s Island theme out of my head? Thanks.

11

Okay, to make it more than explicitly clear: The thread title strongly suggested that this wasn’t going to be about any kind of floating object.

My post has nothing to do with a boat issue whatsoever. None, nada, zip.

Will everyone just hardwire that into their heads?

I repeat, the thread title was highly suggestive about a matter not concerning boats.

I wasn’t questioning anything remotely having anything to do about whose or what boats.

Therefore whether someone somewhere was anywhere near a boat that had anything to do with Depp had nothing to do with what I posted.

In short, the thread title implied some non-boat related activity relating to Depp.

(I think if I went thru my posts in the last couple days, I’d find at least 5 that were completely misunderstood despite being written in clear English. What the ??? is happening to this board?)

12

I’d have to disagree. As soon as I saw the thread title, I thought, “Hey, someone’s been on the Intrepid, or maybe the Black Pearl.” Is “on someone’s ship” some well-known term for something that I’ve not heard before?

13

Okay, I’ll confess that I am a clueless idiot. I am totally “at sea” here. Could you please explain what it is that you mean?

14

Ahem…perhaps the problem lies with you?

“I sailed on Johnny Depp’s ship” doesn’t suggest anything about a boat or being at sea?

15

Aw, fer cryin’ out loud! This is supposed to be a thread about spending time on the ocean; not about a thread title!

I got the title from the captain. A nine-year-old girl was at the tiller, and he said, “Now you can tell your school friends you drove Johnny Depp’s ship.” I thought it was funny. I didn’t think there would be so much controversy.

16

Sorry

17

Looks like someone’s got a dirty mind.

Johnny, that sounds like an awesome experience. Glad you enjoyed it.

18

<anal-retentive movie geek mode ON>

The Lady Washington played the part of the Interceptor in PotC. There was no Intrepid in the movie.

<anal-retentive movie geek mode OFF>

19

Ok, I’m officially pathetic. I was in White Rock this weekend and saw the ship from across the bay, but didn’t know what it was. Now I know, and my first thought was “Oh my god, I was so close to a boat Johnny Depp has been on, and I didn’t go check it out!” Looks like I’m as bad as that nine-year-old girl.

Sounds like you had a great time though Johnny, and while I can’t speak for the wedding party, I can say that my mother claims to have been startled by the Lady Washington’s canon several times over the past few days.

20

LeeshaJoy: You are correct. I watched PotC last night and was going to post a correction, but I didn’t get around to it. IIRC, I made the same mistake before in a Café thread. Intrepid is such a famous ship, I can’t get the name out of my head.

Ms Macphisto: You know, I was thinking that there are Dopers in White Rock. Gotta have a Dopefest sometime. I liked the cannon (or properly, carronade). I’ve always wanted one of those (which is why I knew where to look for it on the net :wink: ). I don’t think it would be a good accessory for the inflatable, though. On the other hand, it would be a lot of fun on the 4th of July!