Garrett working on underwater reality show

By Sherri EllingtonAqua Quest International, which employs Barnesville’s own Kelly Garrett as one of its boat captains, is working on its own documentary. The company’s years of seeking out history lost to the sea will be the focus.’We’ve been filming for years,’ said Garrett, known as Boo Boo among his archaeological recovery shipmates. ‘We’ve found 32 wrecks and more than 3,000 artifacts over 1,000 miles of the north Caribbean.’ The show will not be like most other reality shows, he said. ‘We’ve been told that 70% of the show will be filmed underwater. There’s not going to be a lot of jawing on deck.’ Some of the talking will be done by archaeologist Dr. Robert H. Baer, who will comment on Aqua Quest artifacts being curated at Florida Technical Institute. The filming is being done by Aqua Quest Films, which is producing a pilot documentary being shopped out to a popular cable TV station.’It looks like the reality show will be a good one,’ Garrett said. ‘Michael McCabe will direct it. He’s done documentary films in the Congo and all over the place. He’s done fashion photography too, so I had to tell him there wouldn’t be any models on deck.’McCabe is a New York based photographer and filmmaker who handles the blog, videos and photography at aquaquestinternational. com. He joined the Aqua Quest crew on three film projects: the search for the remains of a sunken 17th century Spanish galleon in the Florida Keys, the salvage of a valuable copper ore shipwreck off North Carolina and a mystery sunken structure offshore of South Bimini Island, on the Great Bahama Bank.’We’re going to build a museum nearby in St.Augustine too,’ said Garrett. Aqua Quest, owned by Robert Mayne, is based in Tarpon Springs, Fla.In addition to the original Aqua Quest, the company now has three more ships, Garrett said. There is the North Star, a 90-foot sailboat; the 68-foot Gulf Coast and the survey vessel Kristen.’The Gulf Coast is going to Florida Tech to teach them how to run the graphing programs we use on board,’ he said.’I’m still running the Aqua Quest, our 70-foot dive boat. Right now the boats are out of the water in the weld for repairs. I’ll tow the Kristen so the North Star will probably outrun me.’The next filming will take place out of Porto Plato, Dominican Republic. It will be original footage from a new site, complete with wireless access ‘“ and work visas.