hurricane

That would be great. I think if we have something going on regularly with breaks in between, it will keep people there. I think the surgery thing would be grand, and then answer questions about how surgery was performed then using "state of the art" tools. :) I think we're going to do more presentations in our period tavern. Diosa and I have been working through a list of presentations: 1) The Life of Henry Morgan - Buccaneer 2) Port Royal - (we have a terrific PowerPoint of this with artifacts and such) 3) Storytime for the Kids - with tall tales from the many sea rovers in attendance who may have a story to tell. 4) Period Games - We will be teaching Passage, Sweat Rag and Bankafalet 5) And we'll do the sugar cane pressing again. It's a mix of education and entertainment - edutainment I guess. I think the addition of these kinds of things (re-enactment, entertainment and edutainment) will really add to the flavor of the event overall and keep people there all day and wanting to come back the next to see what we're up to. With some many talented people here it will be easy. I really like Studley's ideas for other presentations by the Careening Camp. Perhaps also a session on knot tying and such. Period navigation would be cool too. Whatever each person's interests are. These could be done out at the Careening Camp so we can get people to go out there for specific presentations and seeing a working camp. I would love to see a gun demonstration too, so people can learn the difference between a matchlock, doglock, flintlock, blunderbuss, et. al. This is just great to hear so many ideas from so many talented folks! :) I am very excited about next year! -- Hurricane

It's been shut down once in awhile when the river has flooded, but not for two or three days. That's a new one! This reminds me most of the Columbus Day storm, but the winds inland in the Seattle area were at a 100 miles an hour back then. Love it when the lows and highs meet up like that. Down in Florida I always tell them that the winds can go hurricane strength up there and they just laugh. Guess they believe me now! My thoughts are with all my fellow pirates and family who still live up there! -- Hurricane

We had a download meeting last night here with the entire crewe and think we have a solution to the careening camp/fort connection and how to cycle visitors back and forth. Master Studley is drawing the idea up so you can review it Harry. One of the ideas I know he came up with was to pitch a few additional tents beachside in front of the fort so it looks like the pirates are housed there. It adds to the photo opps and creates a good place to stage the cannon before the event. It also makes more sense for the scenario since it keeps visitors eyes on the field and not on the parking lot if it can't be closed. I think the closing the lot would be tough regardless since the parking will become an issue once several thousand people visit the event each day in a couple years :) We are also working on several new edutainment pieces, several for the Pyrates of the Coast pub and one or two for the parade ground area. Touche wants to drill children in proper military orders to prepare them for the militia (what else would a Marine Sargeant want to do?). We have a bunch of kiddie muskets Disney gave us they can use and Studley has the tricorns. Gives the kids something to do and gives photo opps to the parents. The goal is to have something always going on so people stay the day because they are there at 11 but really want to see something at 4. The added activities keep them amused, such as the great games that were there this year. I would recommend adding musicians to the tented area by the stage (the stage being pretty hot to perform on)... Again, we will be shipping you (Harry) some thoughts on this from our crewe and sharing them here as well for others to build onto, add to, etc. -- Hurricane

Good to hear, oh Master at Arms. Plannin' to crack your skull open there next year in the tavern... -- Your Captain

Since 2007 has now passed, I thought I'd start a new thread where pub members could talk about their experiences, the things they did, the people they met, and their lasting members. I will post more later, but I think anyone there would agree that this year's event was amazing, thanks to the hard work of many here and the local Bone Island Buccaneers and Harry and gang at the fort. I was blown away by the attendance and the new ideas that are being implemented. Since I have never been to Ojai, I think I can say that Pirates in Paradise is the best festival east of the Mississippi for pillaging your guts out. Can't wait till next year. I know we're already planning some new things for our representation there. So, thoughts? memories? Such? -- Hurricane

You'll want to call Harry at the fort and he can give you the gate code that will get you into the fort after hours. -- Hurricane

We here are having a hilarious time. Drinking horrible wine, bad rum, painting signs, finishing attire, rehearsing our part and talking about some named, Allhaaaaaandro in the next room for no reason at all. We leave tomorrow night woo! hoo! -- Hurricane

Boy, did we miss out! http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/26/dna.keys/index.html -- Hurricane

Yes, they can sign up on site. Harry just wanted to get a jump on the paperwork so people didn't have to pay at the gate initially to get into the fort. -- Hurricane

We tested a batch of period rum punch today - wow! Key lime juice, muscovado sugar, cheap white rum and water. A killer..... Had to make sure it was period correct, eh? Hic! -- Hurricane

Here is the revised sailing schedule for PiP. The spaces fill up fast, so make sure you call before you get there if you have a specific time and date in mind. http://piratesinparadise.com/excursions/sa...ilschedule.html This includes the other ships in port as well as the WOLF. -- Hurricane

As usual, his stuff is extremely well documented. Gareth helped with the combat portion of the book. And I always love the appendices... -- Hurricane

I highly recommend Benerson Little's new book, The Buccaneer's Realm. A lot of really good stuff in it about the life of a buccaneer as opposed to a pirate. I particularly liked the part where the buccaneers would quarter one of the cattle, cut a hole in the center of one of the pieces and toss it over their heads and carry it like they were wearing a sarape, still dripping blood. If it got too heavy they simply lopped off a piece of the meat. It said a buccaneer could carry 300 pounds of beef back to camp that way. Wow! -- Hurricane

The Buccaneer's Realm, Benerson Little's new book. -- Hurricane

We are pumped to be sure. Boxes are arriving every day as some of our crewe ships things in from points afar. Looks like we will have 11 re-enactors in Port Royal... -- Hurricane

I wish! But I am in training here at the Housienda... -- Hurricane

It's a bit funny to me that most of the activities assigned to pirates in the movies were actually from the buccaneer era. Port Royal in GAoP was a shadow of its former self and not a safe haven for pirates at all. Buccaneers mounted land campaigns and sacked towns, not pirates (as a general rule... I'm sure there's an exception to the rule as always). Hostages, randsom, full out battles with Spanish forts... all buccaneer era and usually pre 1675. That's just the top of my head. Once you show a Captain Sparrow waltzing into Port Royal it gets a little crazy from there on. At least they were hunting for Morgan Adams in the town during her visit... Plus, if you've ever had the pleasure of examining the costuming from Cutthroat Island, it is immaculate in design and authenticity. The only other hand stitched movie garments I've seen since CI is from the 2003 Peter Pan. The pants are all wool and hand sewn. Quite amazing the look at. I think CI blew most of its budget on the authentic costuming and the two ships they had built. -- Hurricane

It's a Jimmy Buffett Song, "The Weather Is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful." -- Hurricane

Key West extended forecast for the festival: Wed Nov 28 Isolated T-Storms 81°/74° Thu Nov 29 Isolated T-Storms 80°/74° Fri Nov 30 Mostly Sunny 79°/73° Sat Dec 1 Partly Cloudy 79°/73° Sun Dec 2 Sunny 80°/73° Love it - not too hot and not too cold for a change... -- Hurricane

Yeah, I did love the idea of having a Maritime Park but sending the Wawona to the wrecking ball. It's typical short sightedness the city is legendary for. It happened when they got rid of the trolley along the waterfront, it almost happened with the Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square... And now the Mayor is trying to close all the clubs and bars that have even the slightest problems with crime or underage drinking. Real estate is way overpriced and many families are just being outpriced for a place to live anymore. You used to be able to drive from Everett to Tacoma in an hour. Now you can't even make it from Tacoma to Seattle in an hour. And there's no money for new freeways or places to put them. And I agree, Seattle drivers have become so rude compared to even 10 years ago. Every time I visit my son up there I wonder what the hell they've done to the city I called home for my entire life. There are other places that are nice there, but Seattle and the Eastside remain a nice place to visit but a horrible place to live. -- Hurricane

I think Spokane is a far better choice. I spent my entire life in Seattle until three years ago and it's just gone to crap. The traffic sucks, the people are kind of unfriendly, especially compared to other places. When we were all natives, it was a great place to be from and live in, but it's lost its soul. I loved Spokane and almost moved to the Inland Empire once. A far saner place to live. Besides Stateline is a short drive away and I still miss the Kicker's at the bar there. -- Hurricane

I would contact these folks - they can at least give you a straight answer as far as Washington state law goes: http://www.tenantsunion.org/rights I used to live there and they were very helpful. -- Hurricane

Good to hear about the weather. The Port Royal crewe heads out Wednesday night for our seven hour jaunt. We will arrive at the fort around 6 a.m. on Thursday morning and start setting up shoppe and the "tavern". So many things to still do. We got our sugar in and our sugar cane pressed cleaned for demos. We have all our provisions in order for cooking and eating, along with several period card and dice games to play. The wenches have been working hard on new items for the shoppe too, which will be next to the "Catt & Fiddle" in the casements, right where we were last year. Stop by and play a game of Passage with one of our characters, if you have some spare coin in your pockets. And check out the recruitment notices on the tavern walls. Several captains are recruiting for their voyages. Susannah Nash will be your hostess in the tavern while her husband's away. And Sir Henry Morgan will be hanging around, as he always does. Seems like the tavern is his home away from home. We even have a strumpet or two floating about to entertain the gentlemen. As for defending the homeland, we have several doglocks and Queen Anne's in stock and powder for them and our new cannon. We ran final checks on the weapons yesterday. Willie Wobble trained us (he gets to shoot the big ones off at the fort in St. Augustine, lucky bas****). Should be a fun time. Our troupe has been working their collected behinds every night for three weeks now to make sure we have a grand time in PiP. I think we're ready! -- Hurricane

Yes, several of the WOLF sails are near full. We were just finishing our own reservations with Julie and Finbar. Don't be left ashore... -- Hurricane

Saturday 7 - 9 p.m. - Key West Lighted Holiday Parade. Join the scurvy pirates for this parade. Best viewing for this holiday-spirited parade is along Truman and Duval streets. FREE.