hurricane

It's actually $109 with the special Conch Republic Navy promotional code. They have a shuttle that runs into town constantly until midnight each night. Key West is expensive in general. On Kayak, to get close to Old Town, you're in the neighborhood of $100 a night regardless. Good luck on your search and we look forward to meeting you.

It's actually $109 with the special Conch Republic Navy code I gave you. They have a shuttle that runs into town constantly until midnight each night. Key West is expensive in general. On Kayak, to get close to Old Town, you're in the neighborhood of $100 a night regardless. Good luck on your search and we look forward to meeting you. -- Hurricane

There shouldn't be much competition for rooms in town. There's nothing else going on except PiP and a lot of PiP campers don't come in until they can set up at the fort. So most places are vacant. The biggest trick is finding something close enough to where you want to be. For example, on Tuesday through Wednesday all the action is in town on Duval and out at the Schooner Bar at the seaport. So you would want to book a room near there rather than farther out. If someone is in town they may be willing to pick you up instead of you taking a cab. There are lots of helpful people on the pub here who are going. --

If I recall it was a Hurricane force storm... never know when they will pop up. One must always be on watch.

Oh, I so want to see the photos. I always love what you come up with, sir. A craftsman and a creative you are, all in one. My kind of guy (in a not hitting on sort of way).

Such will always be the problem, I fear. Someone will say they want to play all on period contact pub but then someone will end up with red wine spilled all over their duds and get pissy about it, wanting to change the rules midstream. There would be no curbing behavior unless it was by duel or cutlass. Things just aren't settled the same way these days. Pity. A good drubbing would do some people good in this world.

Who all are attending St. Augustine this year from the pub? Looking forward to it, says I!

Ahoy there, sir! As for the costume, the Pyrate Fest at the fort attempts to be fairly PC but all the pirates who aren't camping there have much wider interpretations of what a pirate is. Pirates in Paradise is not a PC event - it is all inclusive, from the historical to the hysterical. In addition to the fort activities this year, there is additional pirating to be done at the Pirate Village and Thieve's Market, which is adjacent to the park area. That's where all the stage entertainment is, the pirate's pub, the Schooner WOLF, vendors, food and activities. It's a short hop by car away from the fort, about three minutes. So when you get bored at one you can hop to the other. Our entire crewe is not PC, so feel free to hang with us if you feel out of place at any time. We always feel out of place. :) The Doubletree is the official pirate port. They are offering special room rates under the Conch Republic Navy. The website is: http://doubletree1.hilton.com/en_US/dt/hotel/EYWDTDT-Doubletree-Grand-Key-Resort-Florida/index.do Use the code CRN. That gets you $109 a room plus tax. They have a free shuttle into town for drinkin. It works on the website.... One of my crew just booked through it. It's a good rate unless you want a dive hotel there. I think breakfast is included. If you have limited time, I suggest you fly in Wednesday. The bulk of the activities are Thursday through Sunday. For a complete schedule go here: http://www.piratesinparadise.com. If you have any questions about the Pirates in Paradise festival, email me at hurricane@piratesofthecoast.com. I'm working with Julie on all the events. I will be down there from Monday through Sunday. -- Hurricane

Edited. Didn't like what I said. Damned writer. LOL

I first raised the point that bars in different places would be different and I stand by that. A bar by the port would most likely be more rough-and-tumble than one in the city center. Still, even the louts in the slummiest of establishments would behave differently if it contained both sexes (and not all of them were to be paid for after hours activities.) For the most part, a man can't impress a female by behaving like someone of no character at all. (This is not to say that everyone in a drinking establishment would be doing such, but some almost certainly would have. Probably more than less if our society is any indicator.) ---------------- Even now, this isn't always true. It's still a sweeping generalization. I have known male friends in my own world who have quite a bit of money and have been crass and vile and walked out with the prettiest woman in the room, even though there were insulting and degrading to them. I have rarely seen men act differently than they ordinarily would, even to get some nooky. Case in point. I was in a bar in Fort Pierce this weekend and the guy's opening line to a woman was (and I'm not making this up), "You look a lot better with makeup." If this was his best foot forward trying to impress a female, it wasn't working for him. And a vile buccaneer with a pocket full of several years' wages hardly had to be on his best behavior in Port Royal. There was no reason to be. -- Hurricane

Cool. I'll make sure there's an hour's break in there so people can get over to the battle. -- Hurricane

Does anyone have the schedule of activities going on inside the fort this year? I am trying to coordinate it will all the other activities going on at the annex this year. If possible, I want to be able to clear the stages during the battle each day so everyone can be directed over to the fort or onto the WOLF. A full schedule would be great but even the times fo the battles would be helpful. Want to keep the synergy going so people don't miss anything at either location. -- Hurricane

Yes, and it's going to be packed this year. Never a dull moment, either at the fort, the annex or in town. -- Hurricane

The latest schedule has been added to the Pirates in Paradise site. New this year: Two performances of the Tryal of Anne & Mary, 11 a.m. each day on Friday and Saturday at the Truman Annex stage. Coloring with Uncle Don - kids will be invited to color with Don Maitz. Just hope they don't go outside of the lines. That will be Saturday at 10. Historic tours... each evening in town. Best Dressed Little Wench and Pirate contests - Sunday afternoon on the kid's stage. the BUBBA Home Brew Battle - sample 100 different batches of homemade brew and choose the winner. the Tall Tales and Freestyle Tall Tales contests, Saturday and Sunday. Tons of new vendors and food merchants along the Waterfront. Period weapons display on Friday along with lecturers. I think those are the highlights. Check the page using the link below: http://www.piratesinparadise.com/schedule/index.html -- Hurricane

That would be it from my camp, except the two Animal mentioned. If the other two make it they will be paying their way in and playing guest all day. -- Hurricane

I think the point was that while there were guitars, they aren't the six string acoustics we play or even remotely similar. And I've seen some playing acoustic/electrics that would look more at home with The Beatles. I know of no references to one ever being aboard ship, as was noted earlier, it would have been fiddles, drums, horns and perhaps a fluted instrument of some type. My whole original point is that most musicians who show up at events are re-enacting the music correctly, either because of incorrect instrumentation, modern arrangements, different melodic structures or contemporary playing styles. I fall into this category, certainly, as I play an tenor guitar which wasn't even invented until the 20s, 1920s that is. But I don't pretend to be representing the period style of music, either. Hawkyns, I so hope I can check out your resources while at PiP. They sound wonderful! -- Hurricane

Unfortunately, no. The only reference to that in terms of numbers is a list of occupations and the people who held them before the earthquake, which included one architect,two barbers, four blacksmiths, two bricklayers, five butchers, a slew of carpenters, 14 chryrurgeons/chandlers, coopers, cordwainers, one drugster, fishermen, goldsmiths, gunsmiths, a hatmaker, one ivory turner, lots of merchants and mariners, two pewterers, a pipemaker, four sailmakers, shipwrights, a dozen or so tailors, watermen and wherrymen, and lots of victuallers, vintners and tavern-keepers, two of whom were female. More useful to show the breadth of professions rather than the distributions. Also, there is a note that many of the "free" men and women would have been indentured for 10 years upon their arrival in Jamaica. -- Hurricane

Port Royal always had a large supply of womenfolk. In 1662 in Port Royal, there was about two men for every woman, 400 men, 200 women, 90 children. These are free men and women. By 1692, there were 1,600 free men, 1,400 women and 1,000 children, living in roughly 2,000 structures. The balance of the population, roughly 1,0000, composed of an equal amount of men and women. Obviously, the only entertainment in town besides the drinking establishments was making babies. :) -- Hurricane

They wash up on shore here quite regularly after a good storm. Three years ago (if I recall), a woman pulled a 24" length of gold chain out of a dune which had been battered by storms. Kind of cool to know that it's all out there. The mother load (the Queen's dowery) has not yet been found. It's said that the treasure aboard would make the Atocha seem like nothing. Just as chilling, a thousand people died on the beaches that I'm looking across to right now. A horrific night indeed. - Hurricane

I think that's very true, Master Roberts. There is only slight differences in the mores of the times, but human nature hasn't changed much. We still have hookers and drunks. We still have bar fights. We still have those who will never behave. And that is the glory of our world, frankly. The good, the bad and the ugly. Today, the hookers in Orlando carry paper cups from fast food restaurants. At least that's what Diosa told me when I moved here. Hookers in Vancouver BC look like Pretty Woman hookers. Easy enough to tell the difference, though I wish everyone would wear thigh high boots, but I digress. -- Hurricane

That indeed must have been fantastic. -- Hurricane

That would have been cool, sir. I think that would be an amazing experience to hear that set up with just candlelight. I'll check out Red Priest - love Baroque. -- Hurricane

This relic was found about 1,000 feet offshore from where I live. It's valued at a cool $885,000. Love living on the Treasure Coast. For history buffs, the ships sank somewhere between the Sebastian Inlet and the Fort Pierce Inlet. Treasure continues to be found, including occasionally washing ashore. A lady last year in Vero Beach found a 76 carat emerald on the beach. Here's the complete story on the find. http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/oct/27/vero-beach-mother-daughter-team-find-solid-gold/ -- Hurricane

It would depend how one defines a drinking establishment, hence the discrepancy. The official deeds of the town pre-quake only list 19 taverns in Port Royal. Then there are the punch houses and bordellos... but their number was smaller than this estimate, if only based on the fact that there were 6,500 residents living on 49 acres of land. By that math, there would have been 700 drinking establishments in that small space. Even if you take out the slaves and the children in the census it would be 300 bars. I haven't seen anything in the island documents that puts it at that. I think a lot of that is legend. It certainly wasn't 19, by any stretch, but the town just didn't have enough commercial buildings to hold 300 bars. -- Hurricane