Annapolis's Sea Gypsy Pirate Ship sets sail for her 15th season after a Halloween fire threatened to send the business into the briny deep.
When Pirate Adventures of the Chesapeake owner, Emily Tomasini, awoke to the smell of smoke and the wailing of fire engines last fall, she had no idea that the commotion was coming from her Eastport-based Pirate Adventure business or that the screech of the fire engines could very well have spelled doom for the enterprise into which she and her husband Mike had poured their life’s savings.
“We had just closed the books on our 14th year in business,” the Pirate Queen says. “2016 had been a great year for us, so when we got the call that our business was on fire, we were devastated.”
Emily and Mike rushed to their establishment and were there to watch as more than 60 firefighters from all over Anne Arundel County worked to contain the blaze that threatened to consume the low-slung building that housed the offices and party rooms of the Pirate Adventures of the Chesapeake business, as well as the showroom and retail space of Annapolis Canoe and Kayak.
“Everything inside was either melted or smoke-damaged,” Emily recounts. The couple lost records, photographs, and paraphernalia in the fire. But they didn’t lose their spirit.
Nor did they lose the centerpiece of their company, the 35-foot long, Coast-Guard-approved
Sea Gypsy VI pirate ship, the vessel that Annapolitans have grown accustomed to seeing as she plies the waters around Spa Creek, crewed by some of the fiercest three- to 10-year-old brigands ever to sail the Severn Seas.
Fast forward five frustrating months, and Captains Ruby and Crabby (Emily and Mike’s Pirate names) are putting the finishing touches on plans for their latest season of misadventures on the water. Opening day was April 8.
“We’ve had a tremendous outpouring of help from all over the Eastport Community,” Mike says. “And while the building that houses our party rooms, gift shop, and warehouse is still undergoing construction, we will be able to operate out of some really cool tents we are putting up on the lawn just behind the dock where the Sea Gypsy is berthed.”
At Pirate Adventures of the Chesapeake, it’s all about the experience. Pint-sized landlubbers are transformed into blood-thirsty pirates at the staging area adjacent to the ship.
Each is given a suitable pirate name, such as Castaway Caroline or Enchanted Emmy, a tattoo or two, and the opportunity to play dress-up in a variety of swashbuckling togs.
After a little warmup during which the newly-minted pirates recite a couple of sea chanties and do their share of “arrrghing,” it’s time to board the
Sea Gypsy for about an hour’s worth of fun and games on the water. The ship is licensed to carry 35 passengers and three crew. A slightly-sweetened version of seaman’s grog is provided to the kids. Adults are on their own. (There are no restroom facilities onboard.)
Mike and Emily take turns at the helm, with an ever-changing cast of dastardly doofuses leading the kids (and their parents) on a treasure hunt around the harbor.
“We love all of our employees. We have seen them grow up with our company,” Emily says. “Most are now in their third or fourth year. Their enthusiasm is boundless.”
The comic foil for the treasure hunt is Pirate Pete, who knows just where the pirate chest full of treasure is buried in the Chesapeake mud. Poor Pete is beset by a brace of water cannons manned by the diminutive crew, who take great delight in drenching the waterlogged pirate time and again as he attempts to board the ship and make off with the treasure.
Just as in the movies (the good guys get the spoils), Pete and his dilapidated dinghy
Scallywag are relegated to the briny deep.
There are six trips per day, every day, from April through Labor Day. Tickets cost $22. Kids two years old and under, $12.
It’s just about as much fun as you can have on the water given the fact that no liquor is served on board and the wenches at the rail are all under three feet tall!
For more information, to book your Pirate Cruise, on-shore birthday party, or other special event, call (410) 263-0002 or go to
chesapeakepirates.com.
Note: The author, Craig Ligibel, and his two granddaughters (Enchanted Emmy, now five, and Castaway Caroline, now three) took a cruise aboard the Sea Gypsy in 2015. Emmy drew the picture shown above and wrote her story about the trip. It just doesn’t get much better than this!