by Jack Lee
Just a little local gosip… My daughter Rebecca was recently in Panama City, Panama, where they were filming the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solstice, due for release Nov. 7th. While at dock, their boat (a large luxury yacht) was used in a background scene and for one of the action scenes. If you happen to watch the movie note the yacht where Bond is chased around a large boat and eventually uses a small anchor to fight off one of the villains. That’s actually Beck’s “mobile home”! Beck met the star, Daniel Craig, her first day in port and she thinks Craig is really a nice guy. Actually, I think she has a little crush on him, but then what girl’ doesn’t? Craig was also a guest on their boat between some of the harbor scenes.
Becky is currently on the Pacific side of Panama and is just staying on board and hanging out for a few more days before they come back through the canal and then head home to Florida. This trip has included Panama, Nicaragua, Aruba and a number of small undeveloped islands in the Caribbean. She called on her cell phone yesterday and said she will be glad to get home! She said the beauty of the Carribean islands is a stark contrast to the wide spread poverty on so many of the islands. Many of the local inhabitants, and especially the native indians, live very poor compared to even the poorest American. The island indians live like they are still back in the 1500’s. She said the guests and crew tried to buy a few handmade things from the indians to help them out, but in doing so it brought on a swarm of indians in canoes the following morning and they became pretty aggressive and several borded without being invited, so they left the area.
They have been at sea for about 6 weeks and have another 10 days left before returning. Becky is a graduate of Chico High and Butte College. Beck has been working in the maritime industry for about 11 years and holds two Captain’s licenses, in the US and UK, she is currently working on a book about the yachting world and that will include some of her adventures.