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Something “Amazing” Just Happened…

Image credit: Captain John Brandi of Palm Tree Charters
Boats waiting to transport the racers – Image credit: Captain John Brandi of Palm Tree Charters

Anyone see an abnormally high number of seaplanes flying near Lovango and Congo cays yesterday? Perhaps you saw a helicopter flying back and forth in the area? Want to know why???

CBS chose our happy little slice of heaven as a location in its latest season of The Amazing Race! How cool is that??!!

We got the call yesterday morning from Captain John Brandi of Palm Tree Charters.  He mentioned how someone inquired a while back about booking a charter for yesterday. Seeing how Captain John typically takes weekends off, Island Sue [Captain John’s better half :)] turned down the request. Captain John did do a bit of snooping, however, and soon learned what was up.

It turns out that another boat captain friend of ours was tapped to help out. (Now we’re not sure if any confidentiality releases were signed, so we’re keeping his name out of today’s post.)  What we do know is that this second captain was out near Carval Rock for a good part of the day. It seems that they did some filming in a variety of places around St. Thomas and St. John.

Image credit: Captain John Brandi of Palm Tree Charters
Set up for The Amazing Race – Image credit: Captain John Brandi of Palm Tree Charters

Check out this mobile movie of the seaplane coming in courtesy of Captain John Brandi:

And here is a helicopter moving in, again courtesy of Captain John Brandi:

Once we heard that CBS was using helicopters, we knew Caribbean Buzz had to be involved. Here’s their super official statement (my guess is they signed something):

“We provided aerial support for filming of a CBS reality TV show. It included (Carval) rock, Hans Lollick, Magen’s Bay and downtown at Fort Christian.”

So cool!

Amazing Race Map

Laurie and Craig Crandall just happened to be passing through St. Thomas yesterday afternoon when they caught a glimpse of filming.

“We just came home from a week in Alaska and were coming to the waterfront. And there were all of these filming crews and teams,” Laurie said. “We asked what was happening and we were told it was The Amazing Race. The seaplane was at the waterfront, so I think it was whoever arrived first got on the plane … There were probably about six teams. I wish I was able to get out and talk to them because it looked really cool.”


7 thoughts on “Something “Amazing” Just Happened…”

  1. Poor Trvl John….. you seeing them at the airport this morning can only mean one thing, you are heading home yourself. Safe travels!

  2. This all makes sense…. Boating on Saturday we noticed a plane flying very low behind Lovango and never come out the other side. In a panic, we rushed over to help in fear there had been an accident! When we came around the corner we saw lots of boats and a Seaplane plane on shore. We figured everything was alright so we kept on boating through when we were completely BERATED by one lone DPNR boat and a very power happy Officer, Omari Lewis. He screamed we had to leave the area immediately as if it were a matter of National Security. We had no idea what was happening nor any sign or notification that the waters behind Lovango were “off limits” for that day. I suggest DPNR re-check their attitude towards local boaters. We did not know or care that filming was happening on shore. We were simply trying to enjoy our Saturday.

    • Yes Jillian,
      DPNR gave me the boot also. The way the way they were acting you might have thought Obama was coming. It was as if they were a private security firm.

  3. Terns nest on Carval Rock at this time of year. I wonder what effect this had on them. And Congo Cay is posted as a restricted area by Fish and Wildlife, presumably because seabirds nest there in the summer as well.

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