hurricane

I know of no buccaneers without jobs in Florida right now. And everyone's weapon is safe. Plenty of lead and plenty of powder to hold off those bandits riding elephants who look lost roughshod, striking fear into the heart's of decent, hard working men of fortune. -- Hurricane

I always enjoy a little fear mongering. -- Hurricane

Sterling ---- Whaaaa? -- Hurricane

The only question is where to build them. The encampment would be great, but did pirates or buccaneers build boats on the beach? In the fort, it's a great interpretive exhibit and would go well there as well. Decisions, decisions.... :) They actually did this five years ago when we were on the beach before moving the whole festival into the fort - there was boat building on the beach. It was very cool. Can't remember who did it back then. I think it's a great idea either way! Luckily, my wife has built in flotation devices so I don't need a boat in KW. More fun clinging to Diosa (sorry, she can only save one at a time and I ain't lettin' go for no one no how). -- Hurricane

So true, so true... but I prefer the Caribbean for the sailin'... nothing beat sailing into the harbor of Port Royal two years ago. Northern waters are just too cold for me these days. -- Hurricane

Here's a photo I found of it blowing up...

Here's the listing I found. This site has a great listing of tall ships as well as movie appearances -- the name of the movie ship and the real one used. 1995 Cutthroat Island REAPER MORNING ROSE / Junk NAKALAY | 2 (1. part of the film) MORNING ROSE (2. part of the film) Originally she was a Indonesian coastal trader called the MORNING ROSE. The film company had her towed from Singapore. An additional deck was added, three tall masts fitted plus a bow=sprit. She was completely rigged out in the form of a 17th century pirate ship with heavy canvas sails. She was dismantled and returned to the owners after the movie. MORNING STAR EARL OF PEMBROKE KASKELOT Another 140´ ship The Pembroke and the Kaskelot are both listed as being in the movie. Their site is at: http://www.square-sail.com/square_rig_ships/index.html The bowsprit of the Reaper was on display in Key West in 2003 I believe, at the museum there. I have a photo of it some place. It was indeed auctioned off later -- the person had to pick it up in LA though, so I passed on it. -- Hurricane

So what you're saying is that I need to order all the back issues to find the recipes. I'll explain it that way to Diosa and see how it works. I'm sure she'll understand. :) -- Hurricane

But he does know how to find recipes in Maxxim. I've been through my last 10 issues (over and over again) and haven't found a single recipe. And yet, he insists they are there. :) -- Hurricane

I only take a day and a half to consume, if it's a King Vulture followed by the others. They have a scale at the Brevard Zoo that tells you how long it takes the vultures to recycle you. - Hurricane

Are you sure they weren't vultures you saw? Waiting for you to pass by? They're smart you know - they know eventually they'll get a meal out of ya! :) -- Hurricane

Ah, we already have a boat - we have an open invitation to sail with the WOLF any time we wish. This year, our options are Key West to the Bahamas, the Bahamas to Port Antonio, Jamaica, Jamaica to Turks Caicos. Hhm, so many decisions here in Florida. Oh, and next year it's to Nova Scotia and then to Ireland. So we're safely onto liquor here. :) -- Hurricane

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There is on other mice that work with Mac. I dumped my Apple Mouse immediately and got a Logitech Trackball with programmable buttons and a scroll wheel. It's a delight when working in PhotoShop, which I've been doing much of the day today. -- Hurricane

In Key West, who would notice one more person in drag anyway? Hardly seems worth the time and effort. -- Hurricane

Gasparilla isn't really a pirate event. It's Mardi Gras with pirate parade krewes, instead of the broader theme Mardi Gras has. There are Mardi Gras costumed pirates in a college town. It has always been a booze fest. The only year I went one guy had a shopping cart overflowing with probably 20 bottles of Captain Morgan rum for a 4 hour parade. There has always been public drinking, public drunkenness and underage drinking at this event, as much as there is at Mardi Gras. And given the number of people who attend, even 140 arrest is miniscule. -- Hurricane

Our crewe is unoffendable, Syren. Outside of a clown outfit, we don't really care that much. We have our PC events like Searles and our open activities like PiP and everything in between, so we're the last to judge on anyone's efforts - I'm even nice to all the Jack Sparrows down there. :) -- Hurricane

Yeah, we are definitely not going to be PC. We did that two years ago and it wasn't any fun for our particular take on pirates and our personalities. So we've loosened our rules a lot, especially since Harry made it clear that PiP itself will never be PC... the very nature of the "all-welcoming" attitude of Key West precludes it. We will have plenty of authentic rum punch and cheap red wine for ya if you make your way over to the Catt & Fiddle. And lots of lemonadoes for the non drinkers. Oh -- and if you ever do buccaneer period, bucket boots were in!!! :) And yes, I don't think it's funny that people think it's cute to mess with other people's stuff. Our own crewe has rules on that - the person gets tossed out. We don't damage other people's stuff. I can safely say that anyone messing with stuff in our tents will have to deal with our Italian pirate - and he's buried bodies before that still haven't been found, with or without a map. I guess that's why we always have someone who stays behind to guard our stuff, which is kind of sad. I know that we have thousands of dollars invested in our equipment, kits, weapons, etc. It's not really a game to us. We don't take kindly to it, as you can tell. -- Hurricane

Gawd, that word was Clint? I thought it was a dirty word that was written there. I couldn't imagine anyone would order shoes with such a vile word as the 'C' word on it. Originally, I thought that's why they wouldn't claim them. -- Hurricane Well I had to run out to the van to see.. Because I still haven't fully unpacked. So I dragged the shoes in, I looked at the tan pair I brought from Brian, and lo and behold, his name was indented on the bottom. So after digging through the baggage and pulling out the oats so as to territorially mark the new shoes, I flipped them over and this is what I saw on the bottom.... It looks like they read "Clint D" or Clint B" or something like that.... Never heard of the guy.

My most humble of apologies. I was only brainstorming what Melissa's group did. Diosa's jerk chicken was a true highlight of the weekend, especially because she had to do a little creative shopping at a local market to come up with an equivalent of what we already had at the homestead. Sorry, I was sober this time. My memory is still recovering from years of fuzziness. Thankfully, Dangerous and Michael continue to carry on the tradition of insobriety. And yes, whores wore their hair down in Port Royal - made it easier for the drunken buccaneers to know who was in service to their King and who was to service them. -- Hurricane

Funny... many think they are the modern day heirs of piracy. In my years I've had the chance to enjoy many a strange evening with bikers, including Hell's Angels and the Banditos. As we sat there in our respective gear enjoying beers together, a Hell's Angels explained to me why they liked our band of pirates so much. They felt a kindred spirit with us. Animal can back that up. We used to have some of the best gatherings with the bikers at festivals and events we hit. Here's a bit from my upcoming memoirs about one particular event in Port Townsend, Washington, the Rhodie Festival: "Bikers love pirates. I was told once by a Hell’s Angels member once that they see themselves as the modern day pirates. So even though any one of them could kill any one of us at a moment’s notice, we always partied well together. It was in this bar that this became very evident. We were all sucking down drinks when the head of the bikers gets up on the bar. He’s going to do a little toast. So up jumps Kenny Baker, one of our pirates to stand with him. One thing leads to another as the joking goes back and forth and before I know it, Kenny rips the side of the guy’s jeans from the hem to the waistband. All I heard was a big ripping sound and the room went silent. I turned towards the bar. Without missing a beat, Kenny rips the other leg the same way. Another big rip. More silence. I am standing here next to a group of bikers. I’m a lowly mailroom clerk that can barely lick a stamp, let alone any one of the bikers in this room. I think to myself, “Wow, I’m going to die right here in this little bar.” Finally, the head biker guy lets out a huge roar of laughter. He thought it was funny that his pair of jeans was now in shreds. He hoisted a toast to Kenny. We all toasted back. And then everyone started buying everyone else a drink. When I try to explain what it was like being a pirate, I often point to this moment in time. If anyone had done this in civilian attire, they would have found us in the alley behind, riddled with gunshots or stab wounds. But as a pirate, we got away with this. I often say it’s like having the old “E” tickets to the best rides at Disneyland. You can’t pay for the experiences you get being part of this magic we call pirating. Seeing things as a spectator just isn’t the same. Port Townsend always seems to have a Kenny Baker story surrounding it. A couple of the wilder pirates – Kenny and Jerry Ceis – would always be dreaming up something big to do. One of their great ideas was to have a fight up on the top deck of the Duck. Then the captain would fire the shotgun and one of the guys would fall dead into a net that was behind the Duck. One of the duties of the candidates was to hold the net and catch the guy who was falling. The show went perfectly in Port Townsend. There was only one problem. Kenny didn’t bother telling anyone that he was going to do this stunt. So when he fell off the Duck, he smashed right into the pavement. There was no net. One of the guys had to rush him off to the hospital as we continued bravely on in the parade. We were very concerned about Kenny, of course. At the next bar we toasted him, had the appropriate moment of silence and said how much we would miss him. Kenny didn’t die of course. None of us did back then. We sincerely believed we were immortal and unstoppable. We could all do the dumbest things in the world and come bouncing back to life. " -- Hurricane

Hey Michael! I forgot to ask... can you remind me what the name were on those shoes I gave you? I suddenly realized that all the pairs Loyalist ships has a name imprinted on the bottom of the person who ordered them. I checked when they got here, but I didn't know who the bloke was since no one on pyracy.com had such a freaky name. Just can't recall it at the moment. Lovely pair of shoes - too bad the lad never got to enjoy them himself. -- Hurricane

Oh, god -- ham, lamb stew, chili chowder soup, garlic soup, tons of bread from the Spanish bakery, fruit, ale, sangria, vegetables, fresh oysters on the half shell. It's more of a matter of what wasn't there. Melissa managed a feast for 150 with total aplomb, aided of course by a bevvy of beautiful servant women.

There will be a service for the cap in the backyard this evening. I don't think you'll ever see Diosa in it again! -- Hurricane