TalesOfTheSevenSeas

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The rag-tag crew o' pirates was led by a wench who was known on the high seas by the name o' "Poison Quill" She spoke at length to the Captain and quickly determined him to be a good sort. So she consulted Saber, her partner in crime. "Yo! Pirate-Boy!" she hollered to him. "How would ye like to sail aboard the tall ship Royaliste?!!" Saber, being a man o' the sea who had given up his ship to marry the 'Quill were most pleased by this news...

Now ye' know why I married 'im eh wot?!!! *elbow nudge* :)

More highlights from the parade!! Quill n' Lucky Penny commandeer the Coast Guard vessel!! Saber French-kisses Dead Fred?!!!!!!!! Taking our Coast Guard captives aboard the Land Shark! Grace O'Malley takes a 'Coastie' captive!! The pirates capture a giant bowling pin!!!!!!!!! ARRRRR what a prize!!! Arrrr rogue crew o' the not-so-good-ship Land Shark!! Carrying the banner

Whereupon her arrival in the Bay o' St. Francis, the Captain look't about his foredeck and saw he were sorely short-handed. "Now were in th' bloody 'eck does one recruit a crew o' pirates in these waters?" thought the Captain to hisself......

Aye! 'Tis a grand idea, but the facilities at Quinn's Lighthouse aren't large enough for that many. ..Saber, glad to see you are sitting upright again! I'm on hold for your doctor right now and will call you soon.

Yeah I really got a kick out of it. I think that it's great that someone was inspired to make their own float based on what we did. I hope there will be a whole fleet of Land Sharks some day!!!

Check this out mates, some folks in Florida saw our photos of the Land Shark and decided to creat their own pirate ship parade float modeled after her! Take at look at the Blood Lily at the link below, I think you'll see a lot of family traits from her 'mother' the Land Shark!! ...Gads!!! I think this means I'm the GRANDMOTHER of a pirate ship!!! Guess I'd better start carrying ship photos in my pocket book when I go play bridge!!! LOL Click to see the Blood Lily

The unanswered question is do they want us or not? That's our point of confusion. It's really beginning to look like not.

Kids with guns on the Land Shark That's me giving shamrock stickers to the kids during a lull in the parade

Saturday afternoon, March 13th, Tales of the Seven Seas was in the Dublin St Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin CA. We were joined by the Crew of the Dirty Rotten Oar and totaled about 30 pirates at this event. I'm told by Cracked Carrie, who recorded the telecast that we had very good TV coverage and she' already dropped a CD in the mail to me of the live telecast. We had the Land Shark, our pirate ship parade float out for the parade. It was almost as much fun getting the Land Shark to the parade as it was being in it! We had just about every carload of people turning to stare at the sight of a pirate ship going down the freeway! One busload full of kids was really fun to see- Every kid was turned around backwards staring at the pirate ship! We had some technical difficulites with the electrical system on the float which we should have ironed out for the next parade, but we managed to overcome them. We had POTC playing on the stereo of the truck and simply opened up the doors. The Land Shark was still a big hit, even without the smoking cannons and lights. Afterwards I had one family come up and introduce their little girl to me. She was about 2 years old. They asked her - "Whose the greatest pirate in the whole world?" she was barely old enough to talk and answered like this- "Cap'n Jack Spa-whoh!!!" It was SO cute! They told me they've looked everywhere for a Jack Sparrow doll for her, but since they can't find one, she carries a picture of him everywhere she goes! Here are a few photos, there are many more to come! The Land Shark with the background photoshopped out so that you can see it all assembled and with the new skirting... Pirates aboard the Land Shark Jeff in the crows nest Pirates board a Coast Guard vessel!! Grace O'Malley (In the green dress) and some of her crew in the parade Dead Fred makes a new friend PIRATE GIRLS GONE WILD!!!!! ARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

Well said Penny. Again, Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain, please contact us, our emails for the most part go unanswered. We'd also be happy to make a dockside visit, or arrange a meeting, perhaps through Sail San Francisco, since all of our orgainizations work with them. Whatever it takes to make your preferences known to us.

We communicated with two members of last season's crew after the sail on November 1st. We gave photos of the Lady Washington to your crew and the website of one of our crewmembers was linked to on Lady Washington's website. I personally communicated with John, the first mate of the Lady Washington, and we exchanged several emails. He apologized for the behavior of the crew of the Lady Washington when they mooned us. I let him know it was no problem and that we felt it was all done in good, spirited fun. We got a kick out of it and even got mooned by another ship the following week! What he asked us to do was this: When the Lady Washington came back through, that we should engage her under sail, without using the engines and that we should be fully costumed. The crew of the Royaliste agreed that this is a much better way to do a sea battle and we've been looking forward so much to the Lady's return and some good old-fashioned, good-time rivalry. I emailed John several weeks ago to remind him that we were coming. I saw that he was no longer listed on the current crew and asked him to forward the message on to the proper party aboard. I never did get a response back, so we had to assume that it was all still a go, we'd never heard otherwise. So we organized it, planned it and came out doing exactly what we'd been asked to do. We were very surprised by the unfriendly reception and even more surprised when we were asked to fall off. Please do fill us in on what you expect of us. We are more than willing to be friendly and cooperative, but it is very hard to do this without communication from your crew. My email is talesofthesevenseas@hotmail.com I will be happy to provide you with whatever phone numbers and/or email addresses you need to insure good open communication with the Royaliste in the future.

Ah yes!! Now I remember!! Now to think of a good place for Bone-Apart in the parade. Hmmm... maybe carried by a pirate... Hmmmm

LOL no, this is a wooden skull on a post that Gary has named already, but I don't recall it's name!

No worries Captain. I don't believe they were refering to this last sea battle... That or I was on a different ship! Guys, I'll admit one thing, that there has been a learning curve with our crew. But that is part of the beauty of what's been taking place aboard the Royaliste. We're a group of people who have come together who, for the most part, have little or no prior experience. Hence the sails being set in the earlier days. Gary has had to work with a crew that was 90% or more inexperienced and untrained. This just doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. We've all got day jobs during the week and families to take care of, not to mention some of us who are also in school. We don't get out on the water every day of the week, so this has taken some time. And yet... here we are doing all of this. I'm am incredibly proud of how far this crew has come, especially considering our origins. And Gary deserves a friggin' medal for all he's done for all of us. I don't know of a single Captain anywhere who has opened his home/ship and taken a bunch of rag-tag pirates under his wing and taught them in the way he has. No one does that. We're not a commercial enterprise and it's a huge struggle to make ends meet. We don't have pros aboard. We don't make anything at this. We're out their sailing with injuries, we're sailing when we're broke and can't afford to, when we're sick with the flu and when there's a million other things we really ought to be doing. Yup... I am damn proud to be a member of this crew.

The Land Shark is ready to rock n' roll for the Dublin St Patrick's Day Parade Saturday! Captain Gary brought by Dead Fred, Jeff, the deep cycling battery and another dead head on a post, whose name escapes me. I came up with a good way to keep Dead Fred's head on... a noose! I'm thinking we'll put him on the bowsprit, with a noose around his neck, but with him "climbing" the bowsprit to save hisself from hanging! Should look good and keep his head on! Jeff will be keeping watch in his usual post in the crow's nest. The "Black Pearl" (Mazda 4x4 pickup) is washed n' shiney. We load up tonight for an early morning departure Saturday. We'll have about 20+ pirates by all acounts. Photos will be up ASAP!!

Aye, there's just something about the Royaliste that makes you fall madly in love with her. She weaves her spell on our pirates, that much is for sure!! Once they set foot on her deck, they are bewitched! (all in a good way of course!) She gets under your skin and all other ships sudden look like tug boats by comparison...LOL!

We just had a new pirate join up who works for West Marine- Maybe she can pick us up one on an employee discount.

Here is the latest update on the Land Shark. I've been out working on her all day today. The skirting is finished. I like the new "wave panel" skirting style much better, as it hides most of the trailer. Eventually, we'll replace these panels with permanent hard plastic ones. The mast has now been shortened to under 12' so that she is of legal height requirements. Penny, we beefed up the connections on the yardarm, so no worries, it won't fall on your nose again! Our medical department changed their minds about giving up their skeletons, so it will just Jeff in the crows nest, ...unless Dead Fred would like to join him for the parade? Neko has come up with a converter, a stereo system, several speakers and an additional fog machine. So we won't have to play the music over the sound of a generator anymore! We do need to come up with a car battery though. It turns out we can't hook into the truck's system. If any of you who are coming to the parade have a battery out of an old car that could be used, that would be great, otherwise I'll pick one up this week. Eventually we'll invest in a deep cell battery that can be recharged. With the addition of a second fog machine we'll have one for each cannon, so we should be getting considerably more "smoke" coming from the guns during this parade. Looking forward to a great St. Patrick's Day Parade and we will have photos!!!

Yeah when I worked as a drafter on a USFS dig at a place called Roundy Crossing in Pinedale AZ, we were excavating an 800 year old pueblo with an even older pit house under it. It was the coolest thing to wash pottery sherds back in the lab at the end of the day and see the beautiful and carefully painted black-on-white designs emerge from under many layers of dirt and ash, knowing I was the first person to see this talented artist's work in 800 years! Here are my photos and a little write up on the excavation: ROUNDY CROSSING DIG

That rocks Iron Bess! Thanks for passing along the feedback from Roy D.!!!

If not treasure in the sense of gold, then perhaps treasure in the sense of archaeological treasures. At the turn of the century they said that the Valley of the Kings in Egypt had been exhausted- Then they found Tut's tomb in the 20's. On my first trip to Egypt in 1995, our highly respected Egyptologist (assistant to Dr. Zahi Hawass) stated then that the Valley of the Kings had been exhausted. About six months after my return to the US, Kent Weeks discovered that there was far more to KV-5 than anyone ever imagined. I think treasures are in the eye of the beholder. That is what I love about archaeology. You never know what might be lying just below your feet!!

Maybe ye will be projecting that video of him getting shot out of the cannon on the commissary walls for lunchtime entertainment, eh?!!

This site rocks!! I just sent it to my teenage son and told him that now he could do something productive while he was in school! LOL ! Here I am... Poison Quill raids South Park!!! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!