hurricane

It's definitely worth it - gun fire in the streets of a town. How can you go wrong.

I will be there this year. At least that's the plan. It's definitely worth the drive.

Ahoy all!

The preliminary schedule for the Pirates in Paradise Festival at the Truman Annex Waterfront is up at www.piratesinparadise.com.

It includes several new events:

1st annual Boucan Cookoff

1st annual Home Brew Fest

1st annual Sea Chantey Championship

Interactive Movie Night

1st Annual Jolly Roger ‘Hard Aground’ Land-ship Sailing Race

2011 marks the return of the Tall Tales Championship, two performances of the Tryal of Anne and Mary, guest lectures, Coloring with Don Maitz, the Pirate Pub and the El Meson de Pepe Pirate Feast.

Several events have changed dates to make room for the new events and End of Hurricane Season, which falls on Wednesday.

The Bad Ass Pirate & Buxom Wench Costume Contest is on Tuesday this year.

The 7th Annual National Walk the Plank Championships are now on Saturday.

An all-hands Pirate's Ball is tentatively scheduled for Saturday night.

I'm sure new stuff will be added as the year moves along but wanted to get this up for those planning to attend Pirates in Paradise this year.

That is all.

You post them in the Gallery. Go through your profile and set up a Gallery if you don't already have one.

How about Alafia River Rendezvous? A pre-1840 week-long event in desperate need of a pyrate presence. Find it here.

A week-long presence would be excellent, but it's way too late to register now. I'm going on Saturday (the 21st, I think.)

Although the web site doesn't seem to be up right now...

It has never lacked for a pirate presence - pirates and pirate encampments were there, at least the times I've gone. The best part of the event is the live shooting competition with rifle and pistol. And the shopping is fantastic!

That sir, at best, is laughable. And I did need a good giggle this morning. Thank you.

It would be hard to steal something you had salvage rights on -- Mel Fisher had the legal right to retrieve the treasure, unlike the perp that heisted it from the museum.

There is some consensus among the locals that it wasn't the real bar. When Mel Fisher used to wear that iconic chain around town, it wasn't real either, or so says some of his friends. He told them he'd be nuts to wear that much gold around in a town where a thief could easily roll him in an alley. Makes sense.

There were lots of photos taken of it at the National Walk the Plank Championships. It was Klaus' main gimmick this year.

Well remembered, Diosa. I recall all this fondly as well. 2004 was indeed a fun year and we had a really great crew there, including Wrongway, my son. I had also invited my ex-wife's group down to perform - the Thyrce Whycked Wenches, which is another story entirely.

The beach was terrific for the village market. No one camped there at the time and we were closer to the refreshment stand (and the bathrooms) under a canopy of trees. A great location. It was fun having the games table that year and we also had a group building the little boats you see in the photos Diosa posted. We had a falcon/hawk demo exhibit as well as Oreo. That was a great addition.

The National Walk the Plank Champions had Paisley as a nun offering last rites and communion (Nilla Wafers) just before we booted the contestants off. Bloody Jen won and the first prize that year was a costume from Cutthroat Island. What was I thinking?

This was the year of Sir Nigel. Oryginal Cinn autographed his back with five deep fingernail scrapes from the left should to the right waist. I offered that it looked a little uneven so she repeated the marking, making a huge bleeding X on his back. Looked like he had received 10 lashes.

The Kid's Day at Mel Fishers was a blast. They had rigged up games for the kids to play, including walking the plank. We performed and gave out a lot of treasure. As I said, we were a lot more visible in and around town, doing these events and promoting the final weekend, which was just a small part of what we were doing.

I loved going on the sails aboard the WOLF with the crewe. And what a great crewe we had that year - Diosa, Sheila, Olaf, Studley, Sir Nigel, Oryginal Cinn, Deadly Aim, Paisley, Merrydeath, WrongWay and Black Skot. If you ever get a chance to go sailing with Finbar do!

Diosa right, we did work our butts off there. But it was such a fun time for us all, none of it seemed like work.

And yes, I did try to walk on water. It almost cost Sir Nigel his guitar. I was taking it back to the van and didn't really bother to notice the pool in between me and the walkway to the parking lot. I stepped into mid air, guitar in hand, noticed the pool and by the miracles of miracles, found my way back to the pool's edge. Still don't know why I didn't end up in the drink that night.

Oh, and I picked up a really nice glicee at the auction that the Wycked Wenches wanted. I just kept driving up the bid because I could back then. Ended up with a $1500 pirate glicee for $250. Love the auctions there.

That is all, until I think of something else and edit, since Diosa loves it so much when I do. Oh, and I see she is copying me now and edited hers as well.

The secret is Shoe Stretch. It's a little spray bottle that you can get at Wal-Mart. Spray it inside, wear until it dries and leather shoes form fit to you. Love that stuff. I had to wet, wear and repeat three times before they were perfect. An old girlfriend taught me about the magic of Shoe Stretch, in finer and less fine shoe departments everywhere.

It wasn't me. I'm content with the gold bar I got from Mel Fisher's.

I think it popped on facebook about a minute after it went live. And then through the miracle that it is, it went viral withint seconds and is smattered on everyone's site. Love that about facebook.

On the movie note - looks great, but of course, it has Penelope Cruz, so who needs anyone else in it?

True, once you begin to play with other instruments and musicians you need to tune to something. I don't think they were tone deaf 300 years ago... The more you play the better your ear is trained to pitch and tuning. So once your playing with others you would notice this even more. I agree with you Foxe that soloists would do whatever sounds right to the player.

That's not necessarily the case. I myself played with an older gentlemen, an Irishman who played baritone uke. He never used a pitch pipe or had any tuning except his. If you wanted to play with him, you tuned to him, even if you had a pitch pipe or tuner. I think that would be the ordinary way back then - you would tune to the lead instrument and we've done it ourselves recently. We tuned to each other and off we went. If we were all a half step lower than normal, it was OK, as we were all tune. A lot of people have no sense of pitch or what a proper tuning is, especially amateur musicians, as I assume most singing or playing in a tavern at the time would be (and I am only referring to the impromptu entertainment, not a group of professionals).

Yeah, I had to change the size of the socks I wore. I also ended up added a Dr. Scholls thingy into them, just to add cushion over the pebbles and rocks of Key West hinterlands. But I couldn't be happier. Glad you found them to be the same.

No Quarter Given did a great tutorial on how to make shoes out of these in one of their issues a couple years ago.

Me, I may be the only one whose Loyalist shoes fit but I wore them 12 hours a day down in Key West for five days straight without a single pain, callous, or blister. They saved my feet for sure. As I noted. I got my fit from measuring three different times over two weeks to compensate for swelling and other issues. Then I averaged the measurements and converted into centimeters to get a good fit. But I know others have not had similar pleasant experiences.

Wow! That's very interesting. In the U.S. (and I speak for Florida only) any reproduction of a period fire arm is considered an antique and as such requires no registration. Funny thing about it is my guns come from Loyalist Arms, which is in Canada. Go figure!

That was my first year, too. The DVD Release party was quite the coup for the festival. And they didn't spare any expense in putting it on. One of my favorite things our crew did that year was story time at the library. We also visited the retirement home on Stock Island to bring the festival to those who weren't physically able to go there.

I still remember getting the van at Miami and piling six or so of us into it and driving down the keys for the first time. It was dark when we got to Miami and when we drove down, the sun turned the blackness to this amazing turquoise and green - still my favorite time to drive down to Key West.

The trial was at the Old City Hall back then - still the best venue for it. It looked the most like a court room and you felt like you were really watching the trial. My son married Bawdy Be that year. I think he was 5 then. They still talk on the phone occasionally.

After the evening's events we were all in the streets of Duval so all the pirate crewes would continue to meet up and spread the word about the festival. That was really a great part of the event in those days.

I married this reporter girl at the Mel Fisher Museum for 24 hours. My toes were tingling. Oddly, the place we stood there to exchange vows was at the Pirate Dinner Theater in Orlando when we exchanged our real vows for Diosa's first marriage and first ex husband. That was also the year that Sir Nigel fell in love with Yellowbeard's step daughter and I thought he was going to be punched out by him at one time.

The fight circles were over at the Historic Seaport. I will have to post the hilarious photo of Wrong Way and another pirate passed out on the dock there together. Really good times and there wasn't the distinction between crewes as there is now. It was just one big rolling party of good friends and good times.

Loved the events at the Customs House, Banana Bay and Mel Fisher's. I'm sorry we don't do those any longer.

I think that's a great idea. I know the moderators have been working over time, but perhaps all the recent posts about improving it can be shifted over to a new thread so we can focus on the history of this event and how it came to be, which in itself is quite lengthy and indeed, fascinating.

As for the personal issues of why I don't camp, coming from the horse's mouth, it's because I've never liked camping, period or non-period. That's why I don't stay at the fort - I have always been at the heart a hotel pirate. I would have been at the fort more this year but I was assigned MC duties on the stage, so there were rare times when I could steal away from me duties there.

Back to history. I think if everyone goes through the links I posted of what used to be done at PiP and how it and FTPI have evolved, it will start to make sense. And it's quite instructive to see things that have gone by the wayside - such as the Pyrate Olympics and the Kid's Fest at Mel Fisher's that may have some usefulness in the future. I think the events that have been tried over the years should always be re-examined and reinterpreted.

For example, I think one year we had planned to drill the children in protecting the fort. I know it was done at Green Turtle Cay. Perhaps someone can fashion wooden rifles and one of the king's soldiers can put them through muster. When we did it at GTC, we did it similar to Simon Says. The kids loved it and it would add to the fort side's events. As anyone knows, kids bring parents, parents bring money and they will stay around forever if the kids are amused. Again, we should all look at what we've done in the past to see what we can do in the future and the links to past years may be helpful. I for one had forgotten that the National Walk the Plank Championship was originally on a Sunday. I thought it had always been Thursday. And there was a Pirate Ball a couple years, which I think is already being resurrected for 2011 at the Annex side (which already has the liquor license for it thanks to the Mohawk).

We did have a shuttle one year and what a help. Pirate's Soul sponsored it. Fayma tried her darndest to get one this year, but it was not to be. It would greatly simplify the movement of public and troops back and forth. I hope this year that will be one of our #1 priorities.

And Beowoulf, don't think for a moment that not living in Florida gets you out of helping. Just ask Lily and Sterling. :)

Sorry, this post is below. I quoted myself for some reason. Don't ask.

And besides, I'm never post without editing because Diosa loves is so when I do, don't ya dahling? :)

This is response to Beowoulf...

There is no division between the two groups and no divisiveness. I really can't emphasize this enough. When Spike and BiBs were in charge, yes, animosity, but purely for business reasons that I won't go into here. Certainly not now with Fayma and the Friends of the Fort running the FTPI. In fact, Fayma is an officer in the Conch Republic Navy. Finbar made her a Lieutenant this past year. He certainly doesn't bestow such honors on people who are his enemies.

There is a space issue and always has been. The fort only has so much space. Although some campers cancelled at the last minute, there was initial concern that all the campers wouldn't fit into the fort, let alone vendors. Additionally. the mission of the fort is to represent living history. Many of PiP's events don't even remotely fit into that mission and neither do many of the vendors. Even the tryal of Anne and Mary isn't truly historical, not with Tizzy in it (and I wouldn't trade Cascabel's comic relief ever for the historical version).

PiP is once again in a high growth mode, i.e., the non-period events. Next year, the grounds will be twice the size that it was this year with more events and activities geared to the community. We only had 10 weeks this year to get the site together, given the late start on the permitting with the city. I can't explain all the new additions as they are in process, but they certainly wouldn't fit into the fort, either in terms of space or in terms of philosophy.

No one blames the fort or FTPI for gravitating more toward period representations. I camped there myself for several years and loved it. But PiP serves many masters, and its first obligation is to the city organizations that support it, including the historical society, the Mowhawk and Ingham, the visitor's bureau, the hotels the in-town venues and the City of Key West who issued all the permits this year for the Annex.

I personally look forward to another year of working with the FTPI team and PiP to make them both even more amazing this year. Let's just live with the fact that they are different and distinct. They have different missions, different bosses and different business models. But that doesn't mean they aren't on friendly terms or don't take advantage of the synergies available to them whenever possible

During this past year, Fayma and Julie were in constant, sometimes daily communication. I was in on many of them. It's easy to assume that there is no coordination, but none of you (outside of Sterling, Haunting Lily, Fayma, Diosa and myself on this board - and forgive me if I missed someone) are in on the day-to-day of what goes on with these events. There is plenty of communication, coordination and sharing of information and resources.

There are always vendors who are unhappy with their time there. It happens every year. Ask Diosa. We used to vend. We used to hear the griping. I spoke to many vendors at the Annex who were absolutely thrilled with their time there. I heard several say how much they love coming down to PiP and FTPI because they are able to break even on a vacation in Key West. They don't even care if they make money since they can fill an empty space in their vending calendar with a usually warm visit to the tropics.

To return to the initial point - there is no animosity here. We make due with the conditions as they arise. We adapt as the requirements of the city and the fort change. We alter our marketing and advertising to meet the stringent requirements of grants (you'd be surprised what these are), and we try to put on the best respective festivals we can.

To put it out there for others that we are dysfunctional or have a feud going on is so far from the truth that it is laughable at best. It's easy to sit on the sidelines and judge what has been happening for years to keep these events going without any funding, without any support at times and with the "peanut gallery" griping about why we can't have one big love fest for pirates.

I could tell stories here that would shock you about how close this thing comes every year to falling by the wayside. But people like Fayma, Julie, Haunting Lily, Diosa and I do this because we love Key West and we love our friends to come down to our neck of the woods and play pirate with us. Countless times we have simply willed these two events into existence at the last minute just so everyone can come down and have some fun in the sun.

I hope we can all move on and quit psychoanalyzing everything from the grandstands. It does nothing to improve FTPI or PiP. If anything, it makes us wonder why we do all this hard work in the first place. It is at best a thankless job. If you want to truly help us improve these events, volunteer to join the groups planning them and work with us throughout the year. We could sure use the help and it could be a real eye opener for you. I know it was for me.

I agree Diosa, I love both of them for entirely different reasons. And whether we like it or not, there are two different festivals and have been for some time, right down to how you register for them as a vendor or participant.

And there's nothing wrong with it. I think Hawkyns did a good job at outlining the differences in philosophy of each. I made it a point to come over to the forts to get a littler period time in. I particularly enjoyed Mission's presentation on period surgery. Wow!

Equally, I loved the musical the kids did, coloring with Don Maitz, being smacked by the kid with the pinatas, the costume contest with the little pirates and the Tall Tales contest.

There's nothing wrong with going to just one or going to both - it's a big pirate world. But they have separate names and we should get used to them. Certainly, as a FTPI vendor I would want people to know I am at FTPI, not PiP, otherwise they may end up at the Annex and wonder where I was. Same as an entertainer. It only serves to create more visibility and clarity for everyone involved.

Actually, PiP is the Cultural, Arts and Entertainment side of everything. It's mission is to celebrate Key West's Rich & Colorful Maritime Heritage, which extends to the Navy presence, the Conch Armed Forces, the historic ships docked at the Annex, the local museums and the artists and performers.

The Fort Taylor Pyrate Invasion are those activities geared to re-enactors and history buffs who want to deliver an authentic representation of the times, from Buccaneer to Wrecker.

I would assume the Friends of the Fort would like to get more value out of their branding so they can draw more people to the fort. Using the Pirates in Paradise name only increases the visibility of the events held around town and at the annex. It doesn't promote the event at the fort at all. But that's each person's choice.

I have to admit, I think the splitting of names is extremely silly and mostly has the power to be divisive and confusing. That's IMHO. I still refer to the whole mess as PiP in the Surgeon's Journal.

It's really just fundamental Marketing 101. Dilution doesn't benefit any brand... that's why we still have PCs and Macs. They are aimed at different audiences. They have different features. No different here. These events have always had different audiences and offerings in addition to different organizers/owners. So what's wrong with educating everyone so they can make an informed decision about what they want to attend and to use the proper brand name for it?

And as for the rumors about the 2004 move - nothing could be further from the truth. I was involved in the decision to move it to the fort beach that year (as was Diosa). We could have stayed at the seaport but the event was pretty spaced out and there was no synergy with the merchants and entertainment, who were spread out. Harry offered to move it to the beach so we had a single space. No big secret there. It would have just stayed at the seaport otherwise, or we would have moved it elsewhere. It had five different homes over the years before the fort took it in in '04.

It's pretty basic, really. The fort events were taken over by the Friends of the Fort in 2005. It was Harry and a full time employee then. In 2007 the Bone Island Buccaneers took it over on behalf of Friends of the Fort. The two groups worked together on it. It was originally called the Fort Taylor Pirate Fest. This is when the two events actually separated and become their own entities.

When BiB terminated its contract with the fort, Fayma and her team gracefully stepped in and saved the fort event, i.e., what is now known as the Fort Taylor Pyrate Invasion.

Pirates in Paradise is everything that is off-site, including the Pirate Village, Thieve's Market, all the in town events, the Walk the Plank Championships and everything you see on the PiP site this year. It is run by Julie and Finbar, supported by volunteers. It is not associated with the fort or the Friends of the Fort.

I think that should clear it up. I had to edit this a bit to get the sequence of events correct after speaking with the people in the know.

Oh, and that posting is incorrect. There was no camping allowed in 2004. Only two people stayed there for security, Olaf and Sulley. Everyone else was in hotels.

A great idea. I think the more us 'old timers' and newer folk can talk about the two events and how they came to be and what makes them unique and different, the better. It will help others understand and decide how they want to participate in the years to come.

I think I actually started working with Julie in 2001 on the website. I still have a copy of it for nostalgia sake, but didn't make it down until 2003. Here's a Time Tunnel look at the original site:

http://web.archive.org/web/20011225164007/http://www.piratesinparadise.com/index.html

The Entertainment roster and the Schedule are kind of fun to look at.

2003

Here's Diosa's and my first year at PiP. The festival was based at the Historic Seaport then.

http://web.archive.org/web/20031202170415/piratesinparadise.com/schedule/index.html

2004

The first year we were at the fort - the 1st Walk the Plank was on Sunday that year.

http://web.archive.org/web/20041207223544/piratesinparadise.com/schedule/index.html

2005

http://web.archive.org/web/20051127040450/www.piratesinparadise.com/schedule/index.html

2006

http://web.archive.org/web/20061112223347/www.piratesinparadise.com/schedule/index.html

Yes, we were in Port Royal that year (2005), the first year it was held in the fort. And Raven returned that year to reprise her role, or so it shows in my photos from that year, the few that I scarfed from others.

And Diosa, you never did get an alimony from that lout, did you? Scurrilous rogue that he is.