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At the marina in Jensen Beach, FL - Jan 2014
On the hard - Fort Lauderdale - Jan 2014
Filming of the movie "PAPA"
Havana, Cuba
April 22, 2014 to May 3, 2014
I received a call in January 2014 from a surveyor 2 hours north of Fort Lauderdale. He asked if I could deliver a boat from Jensen Beach, Fla to Fort Lauderdale. "YES," was my first response and "What are the details?" was my second response.
A 1960 34' Wheeler (wood boat). The name "Wheeler" brought back immediate memories - my parents purchased their home from the Wheeler family - the same family as the Wheeler Shipyard Company of Brooklyn - in Amityville, Long Island, New York in 1951. This house remained in our family for 59 years until the last parent passed away.
Further Internet searching revealed that Hemingway's boat "PILAR" was a Wheeler. I immediately emailed the surveyor excitedly telling him of these two coincidences. He replied that this boat was going to be modified to replicate "PILAR," and will be used in a new Hemingway movie, "PAPA," to be filmed entirely in Cuba.
Adding more to this, my mother attended the University of Havana in 1942 - and - one more - I am a board member of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Destiny and Fate were clearly knocking at my door! I was immediately hooked and signed on for this new and exciting adventure.
Now I was communicating with Michael, one of the producers, from Canada. Due to the US embargo with Cuba, it was relevant to have a Canadian production company on board. Here are two BEFORE pictures
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At the marina in Jensen Beach, FL - Jan 2014 |
On the hard - Fort Lauderdale - Jan 2014 |
Here is a
picture of "PILAR" that is now located at Hemingway's house in Havana
- Finca Vigía.
The
38-foot fishing boat named Pilar
was
acquired in April 1934 from Wheeler Shipbuilding in Brooklyn, New York, for
$7,495. "Pilar" was a
nickname for Hemingway's wife Pauline and also the name of the woman leader of
the partisan band in his 1940 novel of the Spanish Civil War, For
Whom the Bell Tolls.
Hemingway regularly fished off the boat in the waters of Key West, Florida
Marquesas Keys and the Gulf Stream off the Cuban coast. He made three
trips to the Bimini islands wherein his fishing, drinking, and fighting exploits
drew much attention and remain part of the history of the islands.
As usual, we had problems right off the bat after getting on the boat in Jensen Beach. The port gasoline engine would not start. Back to Fort Lauderdale with instructions for the mechanic to get it going. Two days later, back to Jensen Beach for the ride south. In speaking with Bill, the former owner, he stated that he generally cruised at 2000 RPM's - about 8 knots. This would make for a LONG ride to Fort Lauderdale. All went well until we were about 500' from our final destination. Angler's Avenue Marina was inbound on the Dania Cutoff Canal, just after the I-95 bridges and the CSX railroad trestle. I called the marina in advance to get the bridge clearance. They advised it was 11'. The surveyor said I should be able to make it. Unfortunately, it was high tide when we got to Fort Lauderdale. When we reached these three points, we ducked down, put the engine in forward at low idle and prayed that the boat would go in a straight line. We cleared the first two bridges with about 1 to 2 inches to spare. One false move would have been instantaneous decapitation! We inched toward the last obstacle, the CSX railroad trestle. We were about 2 inches OVER! Just before the three bridges, was the Lauderdale Small Boat Club where they were having their monthly meeting. We turned around and went back under the first two bridges and docked at the LSBC. I called Frank, the guy in charge who I knew and asked for permission to dock there for the night. We went back the next day at low tide and finished the delivery.
On April 14th, the emails started flying back and forth between Michael, one of the producers from Canada and I regarding taking the boat to Cuba. Unfortunately, when the boat was taken out of the water in Fort Lauderdale, they either didn't rig the haul out slings properly or dropped the boat. I'm not sure what happened. Someone else took the book from Fort Lauderdale to Key West. During a sea trial in Key West, one of the bottom planks "popped," and she started taking on water. After a mayday call, the Coast Guard arrived with a high capacity gas pump which prevented the boat from sinking. They took it back to the marina and took her out of the water. Apparently whatever repair work that was done in Fort Lauderdale did not resolve whatever problem there was. Fiber glassing the bottom would take a week, which the production company did not have. Filming of the movie "PAPA," was already on-going and they desperately needed the boat in Havana as soon as possible to avoid further cost overruns and delays. They decided on just planking the bottom in various spots with plywood, bolting them in place along with 5200, a high-performance polyurethane adhesive.
I flew to Key West on April 20th ready to leave on the 21st. It was decided that another boat would tow us to the 12 mile international water limit of Havana. We tried to get the boat shipped on a freighter and we did get one quote for $47,000 but it would be another week or maybe two.
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Key West ready to launch April 20, 2014 |
Key West - Launching April 20, 2014 |
We drove her to Key West Bight Marina and docked for the night. Plans were made for Andy, a local fisherman, to tow us from Key West to 12 miles off Cuba, in international waters. Andy did not have permission to enter Cuban waters. The production company obtained a license from the US Treasury department to bring the boat to Cuba for the filming of this movie and all participants were automatically covered, including us, the crew on the boat.
Here is the 1960 34' Wheeler, modified to replicate Hemingway's, 1934 38' Wheeler.
The production crew in Cuba were getting real anxious for us to get going. However, Andy would NOT leave until the winds subsided to below 15 mph. The winds did not die down on the 21st but were expected to subside on the 22nd. The decision was made to leave at 5 AM on April 22nd. We left the marina at 5 AM and drove out Key West harbor heading south and then south west. Andy met us about an hour and about 10 miles south west of Key West where we attached a tow harness and began the tow to Cuba.
The crew on board was me, the captain, John, the mechanic and Rob who was a friend of Bob Yari, who was the director/producer. Rob did a huge amount of organizing, coordinating and many other tasks associated with the entire project. He liked to call himself the Cabin Boy!
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John - Engineer, Steve - Captain, Rob - Cabin Boy
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Andy arriving out of Key West for the tow to Cuba |
Getting ready for the tow |
It was decided to tow us to save wear and tear on the gas engines and so that we had someone to accompany us in case of an emergency. Andy would tow us to 12 miles off the Cuban coast and another boat from Cuba would come out and accompany us the rest of the way to Hemingway Marina. The tow went perfect. John threw out a line and fished all the way to Cuba. Unfortunately - no bites!
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Driving from Key West to Havana
During the trip we had a GPS device called Spot Gen3. This device sends GPS coordinates as well as custom messages and lets others track your location in real-time using Google Maps. The production crew in Cuba were able to actually track us from Key West to Cuba and knew where we were at all times.
I established a waypoint that I determined was 12+ miles from the closest Cuban shoreline and sent that to Cuba before we left. When we approached that spot, I notified Andy to release us. The Cuban boat was nowhere to be seen so we proceeded to Cuba without them. After about ten miles, we saw an approaching boat which turned out to be them. We followed them into Hemingway Marina where we docked at the Port Authority for clearing into Cuba.
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Lead boat from Havana |
Havana |
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Entering Hemingway Marina |
Entering Hemingway Marina |
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Entering Hemingway Marina |
Customs official - Hemingway Marina |
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| There were about 20 people who greeted us at Customs. The Pilar entering Cuba was a tremendous deal. People were lined up along the shore line waving and cheering. |
Bob Yari, producer/director and Rob, our Cabin Boy. |
We had NO paperwork for the boat. Unfortunately it got lost somewhere between January and April. I was NOT going to let that minor detail stand in the way of me going to Cuba. When Customs asked for the paperwork, I told them that the Coast Guard in Key West took the papers during a routine inspection and forgot to give them back to me. Done - No Questions Asked!!
As soon as we cleared customs, we left Hemingway Marina and headed directly to the Port of Havana. It was now dark so they arranged for a local captain to drive with us to the Port of Havana. We were advised to go two miles off shore as there would probably be fishing boats with no lights. This is quite common in other countries. I was warned NOT to drive at night when I delivered a boat to Venezuela a few years ago.
We docked the boat that night at a large marine terminal in Havana behind a Cuban Coast Guard cutter. The Cuban government went above and beyond the call of duty for the filming of this movie. They painted one of their cutters to resemble how it looked in the late 1950's. They provided unprecedented access to just about everything Bob Yari asked for.
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| April 23, 2014 7 AM. Getting ready for today's filming. Painter applying last minute touches. | Bob Yari, director with Adrian Sparks, the actor playing Hemingway going over today's script. |
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Cuban Coast Guard Cutter to be used in the filming. |
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Ship terminal where we docked for a few days. |
Small navy whale boat, also on loan from the Cuban government. |
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Bob Yari, director, and I, heading out to sea. |
Heading out to sea for filming. We had to constantly ask the cutter to slow down as their wake really knocked us around. |
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ACTION!! |
They had a large barge that was our staging area for all of the boat scenes. |
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| Eduardo is up on top. He is the local Cuban who played the part of Gregorio, Hemingway's captain. Eduardo had no knowledge of boating whatsoever. If he was on top pretending to drive the boat, I was down below driving the boat and vice versa. |
Staging barge with Havana in the background. |
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El Morro - entrance to the Port of Havana. |
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| Actress Joely Richardson played the part of Mary, Hemingway's fourth wife. Her mother is Vanessa Redgrave and her sister was Natasha Richardson, wife of actor Liam Neeson. She died in a skiing accident in 2009. | Before moving to the Melia Havana Hotel, we stayed at a 3 bedroom apartment that the production company rented from a local person. This is the view from our window. |
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Adrian Sparks who played Hemingway |
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Actor Giovanni Ribisi who played journalist Ed Myers |
One of the coils went bad, threatening to put a halt to our last day of filming on the boat. We located a very old coil, probably 50+ years old. I hooked it up and the engine started right up. Enjoying a Cuban cigar! | ||||||||
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| There were many beautiful old homes. Many were rundown but there were a lot undergoing renovations. | You would see beautiful restorations in between two beautiful homes in need of restoration. | ||||||||
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| This was a really nice family from Holland. Jost, Lydia and their daughter Floor. Jost built a 50' sailboat from scratch. Without any real knowledge of sailing, they put out for sea a year ago and sailed the world. They left two days later for Florida where they will ship their boat back to Holland and they will fly back. | One of the highlights was visiting Hemingway's home, Finca Vigía. The home now belongs to the Cuban government. It is open to the public as a museum. They don't allow people to go inside. All the rooms open onto an outside wrap-around porch. While the doorways are roped off, you can look inside and take pictures. Again, the Cuban government allowed unprecedented access to the house and even allowed filming to occur inside the house. Everything is original and just about the same way it was in 1961 when the government acquired the house. | ||||||||
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| I was really thrilled to see the original Pilar, now on display at Finca Vigía. |
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Hemingway's dog cemetery. |
Hotel Ambos Mundos, Old Havana. Hemingway kept a hotel room here. If he didn't feel like going back to his house, he would stay here. |
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Model of Pilar at the Hotel Ambos Mundos "Hemingway Room." |
Hemingway's Nobel Peace Price Award |
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Hemingway's typewriter in his room at the Ambos Mundos |
It was a small room with a bed, bathroom and sitting area. |
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Nobel Peace Prize. When I left the Hemingway Room at Ambos Mundos, someone asked to take their picture with me. My one minute of stardom! |
One of Hemingway's hangouts was the Floridita where he would enjoy a daiquiri. I guess its pretty much a tourist joint now. Dozens of people came in, had a daiquiri, listened to some great Cuban music and left. |
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| They have a bronze life-size statue of Hemingway at the bar where you can take your picture with Hemingway! I enjoyed the daiquiri! | There are hundreds and hundreds of vintage cars in Havana. The vast majority of them are pretty beat up and used as taxi's. The shell is about all that is original. Most of the engines have been replaced by Russian diesel engines. There are some such as in the picture above that are in excellent and original condition but not many. They are used for weddings and important events. |
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| This is the actual Hemingway Tournament trophy. This June 9th, 2014 is the 64th Ernest Hemingway International Billfishing Tournament. It would be fun to attend. | The boat is now at Hemingway Marina. The production company who owns the boat is trying to figure out what to do with it! Most Cuban's can't afford it. I suggested listing it on EBay. They would donate it to the Billfish Tournament or there is another Hemingway Festival coming up, but no one knows what to do. |
I left May 3rd and flew from Jose Marti Airport to Miami. The production company did have a license from the US Treasury Department to go to Cuba for this film. The filming of "PAPA" will be the first full-length film shot with a Hollywood director and actors since the 1959 revolution. The Associated Press conducted a full-day interview with full press and film coverage. Their press release was featured in newspapers all across the world.
The Havana Film Festival runs from December 4 - 14, 2014. We are planning on attending.
Interview Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1093982/Hollywood-returns-Cuba-Hemingway-movie.html
Associated Press:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA5y4-3DIlA
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/hemingway-pic-rare-hollywood-moment-cuba
Christian Science Monitor:
Interesting article in Yachting Magazine from 2007:
http://www.yachtingmagazine.com/cruising-chartering/yachting-life/saving-pilar-and-hemingway
