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Fort Taylor Pyrate Invasion Nov/Dec 2012 - Key West, FL
Chapter 16th: Monday evening and Tuesday - Meeting the Pirates of the Dark Rose; Of Don Dunbar; Dinner at Duffy's; A photographic expedition down Duvall with Don; Hanging with Lily; Back to Blue Heaven on Tuesday morning where we met Gareth; Of Gareth; Dinner at the Hogfish Bar & Grill; Meeting Scarlett Jai's mom Lorry; Of Scarlett and her twin; Seeing Pistol Pete's boat and Learning about the Treasure hidden on board.
Photo: Mission
Pirates of the Dark Rose Hanging Out At Lily's Place
Lily invited me to dinner at Duffy's Steak & Lobster House on Monday. (Either that or I invited myself. I do that.) So I made my way over to Chez Alexander Monday evening and found three people sitting in the living room.
I asked them if they were the Brigands because I knew the Brigands had been staying in Lily's condo. They laughed and said I knew them all and was even friends with some of them on Facebook. Now while the bowling ball between my ears had dissipated, I was still operating on three hours of sleep, some cobwebs and breakfast with Stynky, so I think I should be given a pass on this.
It turned out these were the Pirates of the Dark Rose - Crudbeard's Crew. One of them instantly confessed to being Fenris Chase. Another made me guess who she was. I couldn't place her. I finally gave up and said I knew her when I really wasn't at all sure this was true.
"I'm the girl sitting on the cannon!" she announced.
I was thinking about Sandi Bilbo, but she has long, curly red hair while this woman had short dark hair. I mentioned this.
She announced, "That's me!"
Then it slowly, ever so slowly, dawned on me. 
Photo: Don Dunbar's Camera
Sandi and Don On the Battlefield
They make these mystical things called 'wigs.' Little sleep...cobwebs...Stynky at breakfast.
The other person in the living room was Don Dunbar, the photographer who took a ton of photos which have been used all thoughout this Journal.
Don is an avid photographer and the owner of Eastern Maine Images. In fact, in the photo above, he is wearing a black T-shirt that said "piratographer" that his crew had had made for him. You can see some of his work below.
Don is also one of the organizers of the Eastport Pirate Festival which takes place the weekend after Labor Day in Maine. He is a fairly soft-spoken, yet intense kind of guy. His voice intensity rose notably while explaining this event to me. He explained that they had a bed race, fireworks, dinners, a ball and Pirate Pet Show. Yep. A Pirate Pet Show. Color me intrigued. Don noted that it included dogs, cats, rabbits and several other animals. If it has goats, I so want to see this. In fact, I've always wanted to visit Maine and this sounded like a wonderful reason to do so. Don really sells this event well. (I should talk. I yammered on about the Put-in-Bay Pirate Fest to anyone who would listen this weekend.)
 Photo: Don Dunbar |  Photo: Don Dunbar |
 Photo: Don Dunbar |  Photo: Don Dunbar |  Photo: Don Dunbar |
Photo: Mission's Camera
Mission & His Pink Flamingo Breeches
Everyone going out to Duffy's finally arrived at Lily’s place and we all drove over. We were eight - the three Pirates of the Dark Rose, William Red Wake and I, Lily Alexander, Scarlett Jai, Pistol Pete and Agave from Atlanta. Everyone was in normal togs... well... almost everyone.
Being out of costume apparently allowed Scarlett Jai to switch out of her pirate character so that I was finally able - after six years of writing these Journals for this event - to find out something about her non-pirate life. (But you’ll have to wait to hear it.)
In the 16 or 18 trips I've made to Key West, I've never gone to Duffy's, even though Lily has raved about it to me in the past. This is mostly because they have their menu posted out front like a lot of the good Key West restaurants. I have gazed at it several times and never found anything that interested me on it. It looked like a nice, upscale surf-and-turf place. There were a lot of dishes featuring lobster, which has never been a favorite food of mine. (They're just... big... sea cockroaches.)
Photo: Mission's Camera
The Crew at Duffy's: Don, Sandi, Mission, William, Lily,
Scarlett Jai, Pistol Pete, Fenris Chase and Agave
William had talked about getting the Alligator Tail to split between us, but I finally decided alligator was more like meat than fish. (I don’t eat meat.) So I settled on the Yellowtail Snapper "Maison" which featured capers and mushrooms in a white wine sauce. It came with soup or salad - and I went for the New England clam chowder. New England clam chowder in Key West... it just seems... wrong.
Friends, I have been giving Duffy's a short shrift. I knew this the minute I took the first taste of the chowder. It was outstanding. I offered it to Sandi, who told me that she didn't like fish. "You live near the ocean in Maine and you don't like fish?!" She replied, "I live four blocks from the ocean and, no, I don't like fish. I never have." I mean to say... What?! You know?
The entree was good and we all sat around and chattered for quite awhile after the meal was over. It was a really nice evening out. I was stuffed to the gills with fish, which sounds most appropriate.
Photo: Mission
Don on a Key West Night Photo Odyssey
Upon leaving, I decided I would like to walk back rather than ride in the car. I wanted to walk off some of that luxurious dinner. Don Dunbar said he also wanted to go wandering around, so he decided to go with me. We left the group in the parking lot, still talking and wandered down Duvall.
Don has an interesting photography style that I admired. First he stopped to adjust his camera shutter speed so that the dark photos would come out, something about which I am willfully ignorant. (This is why many of my night photos are so bad, no doubt.)
We then proceeded to Duvall. I had originally been planning to leave Don when we reached the corner of Southard and Duvall so I could head back to my condo. When we got there, however, it seemed like it might be more interesting to follow Don down Duvall.
The first thing that occurred
Photo: Mission
Drag Show Flier
Photo: Don Dunbar
Drag Show Hawker & Flier
on the photography part of our jaunt was walking by 801 Bourbon Bar, which has a drag show going on every night. I know this because a drag queen standing in front of the bar handed me a flier, which I have scanned in for your review. (As much as I like my pink flamingo slops, I believe they may have been instrumental in my receiving this bit of literature.) I started to stride away, but Don stopped and asked the girl to pose with the flier for him.
This was how he worked. Don would occasionally pause, point the camera and take a quick shot of something I hadn't really seen. Then he would keep on going. I never noticed that he never took more than one or two shots of any given thing. I tried to give him running commentary about the various buildings and places along the way, but he seemed more focused on finding photo opportunities than my patter. (He later told me he had taken it all in, he’s just a quiet sort as I mentioned before.)
We eventually arrived at Sloppy Joe's bar near the end of Duvall. He didn't take a photo of it, despite my explaining that it was sort of a landmark. (One I've only been to once myself.) Don spied the Hog's Breath Saloon across the street in the back of a parking lot. He shot two or three images of the Hog's Breath and told me that he liked the music. Below are some of Don's images from our walk (and one of mine.)
 Photo: Don Dunbar |  Photo: Don Dunbar |
 Photo: Don Dunbar |  Photo: Don Dunbar |  Photo: Don Dunbar |
 Photo: Don Dunbar |  Photo: Don Dunbar |  Photo: Mission |
We went a little further but quickly ran out of interesting town to photograph.
Don said, "I think I want to get a drink."
I was pretty sure he was thinking of Hog's Breath. While I have never actually been in there for more than five minutes and might have liked to try it myself, my lack of sleep/cobwebs/breakfast with Stynky was wearing on me so I decided to head back to my condo.
Tuesday
I spent most of the day with Lily Alexander. We had breakfast at Blue Heaven where we ran into Gareth and his wife Elizabeth. We chatted with them for a bit and then let them have their breakfast in peace.
Photo: Mission's Camera
Mission and Gareth at Blue Heaven
Gareth has been running the British cannon drills and firings on the battle field for the Viceroy for the last few years. This is highly appropriate because he retired from the British Army after 22 years of service to Her Majesty as an Artilleryman. He told me that he had been in charge of cannons during his tenure which puzzled me until he explained that "anything with a smooth bore is considered a cannon in the military." So we're talking about howitzers and so forth. (I wonder how you prick the charge in those mothers?)
I learned from Scarlett that Gareth had either started a private security firm or worked for one.
She knew from his emails that his job took him all over the world. The emails read: "I'm in Lisbon now, but I'll let you know (whatever) when I get back." She rattled off the same sentence several times, substituting other intriguing foreign city names but I have completely forgotten them. I could do what I usually do
Photo: Don Dunbar
Gareth in Military Garb
and randomly pull names out of the air ("I'm in Northwestern Guam now..." "I'm in Upper Ubangi...") but these were serious, no-nonsense sorts of places so I won't.
One of the things Gareth does for fun is raise sheep. Not just any sheep! He has a sheep that has won all sorts of awards in the UK. He told Scarlett that where he lived, the seasons were not measured by the weather, they were measured by what was going on with the sheep. (Things like 'breeding season,' 'lambing season,' 'shearing season,' 'annoy the sheep by making 'bahhhh-ing' sounds season' and so forth.) Scarlett noted that the seasons in Key West are measured in a similar way by which festival or party was going on - 'Fantasy Fest Season,' 'Christmas Season,' 'Make Fun of the Snowbirds Season,' 'Sweat Till There's No Liquid Left in You Season' and so on.
Scarlett also noted that Gareth's house was built in the 1700s. No doubt many of you are 'oooh-ing' and 'aaah-ing' over this, but my experience in England was that what we think of as being historically significant, the British think of as being new construction. ("1817? Give it a few years so the foundation can settle fully.") They have bars over there that have been running since the time of the Picts.
Photo: Mission's Camera
Mission and Gareth at Blue Heaven
I wanted to go and visit the Key West Key Lime Pie Factory store, which Lily was game for, so we went. She actually did some of her Christmas shopping there. Me? I bought some oddly flavored coffees. (Your ship's surgeon loves oddly-flavored coffees. Note that I am talking here about flavors like coconut and key lime, not absolutely bizarre flavors like bacon or raw sewage. Please do not buy me any coffees like that based on this comment. Thank you.) I was tempted to get a piece of Chocolate-Covered Key Lime pie on a stick, but decided the 6 of them were more than enough for the week. (Besides, they cost $5 a piece here instead of the $3 they were charging us at the fort!)
We then toddled off to Faustos Food Palace so she could get some groceries. It was a Brad and Janet sort of day. We talked philosophy, which has been a recurring theme for me this trip and how we Introverts are so much better off than Extraverts.
Photo: Mission's Camera
Mission and Lorry - Scarlett Jai's Mom
We had dinner with Scarlett Jai on Stock Island at a local’s joint you will probably never be able to find - even with your fancy smart phone mapping program - called the Hogfish Bar & Grill. We dined with Scarlett's mother Lorry and aunt (her aunt was down from somewhere north. Possibly Canada.)
Lorry and I clicked immediately, allowing me to learn a lot more about Scarlett. Scarlett kept trying to separate us, but her mom is one of those fun-loving folks who not only understands the interest of an alleged humor writer in talking to someone's mom, but embraces the opportunity to regale him with the juiciest stories.
So let me give you the skinny on Scarlett. She was born in Montreal, but her family moved down to Hollywood, Florida when she was five or six. She attended college in Tampa for 8 years, earning a variety of degrees in Woman Studies. After doing that, she told me "I couldn't get down here [Key West] fast enough." She's lived in Key West for 11 years and said she is committed to helping out the fort.
Photo: Poppa Ratsey
Scarlett Jai - Don't Mess With Her!
On Saturday, Frank had told me that Scarlett works for the Florida Key's Children's Shelter although he called it 'Project Lighthouse.' He said she is quite passionate about helping children through this organization although I'd never heard her mention it before.
Lorry informed me that she has a twin sister
Photo: Lorry
Lee Lee the Vampiress
& Scarlett the... Scarlett
who is named Lee-Lee. Yes, Scarlett Jai is a twin, just like me! (As far as I know, she doesn't have a third twin like me, which is really her loss.)
I asked Lorry what Lee-Lee was like and she told me that she had had a pirate and a princess. (See if you can guess who is who.)
Lee Lee is a Reiki Master which has something to do with Universal Spiritual Energy Healing. Scarlett, on the other hand, "was born a smart-ass.” Lee-Lee had once claimed that although she was born 8 minutes after Scarlett, she was trying to catch up with her in that department.
At this point Scarlett's aunt jumped in with stories about the twins sneaking off and changing their clothes when she was baby-sitting them so they could fool her into the thinking one was one and one was the other. (This is an old, tried-and-true twin trick. Mae, Brig and I did it all the time. They could never tell us apart.)
Photo: Scarlett Jai
Pistol Pete on his Boat Before She Went Into Dry Dock
After dinner, Scarlett took us to see her boyfriend Pistol Pete's live-aboard boat which he is in the process of restoring. Scarlett told me that her dream was to go on an around-the-world sailing jaunt with Pete. His boat is in drydock amongst a village of similar boats on Stock Island, many of which have active tenants.
I don't remember much about the boat other than she was about 45 feet long, gaff-rigged, had a boom that stuck out well beyond the back of the boat, had an 8 foot draft and a 50 or 60 foot tall mast. The inside was very cozy and yet had a lot of standing room because of the design of the boat and her deep draft. Gee. Guess I remember more than I thought.
Pete was sitting back relaxing when we climbed down the , ladder into his home. He was listening to some really nice new age music. The walls were decorated with pirate images and photos, many of them from past FTPI events. The seats were covered with skull-and-bones blankets. It was all very piratey.
Photo: Poppa Ratsey
Pistol Pete, Pirate
Pistol Pete is a quiet, intense sort of guy - like someone who is very calm on the surface, but has all sorts of things whirling through his mind. He sort of, kind of, reminded me of Patrick Hand. Pete is a professional sailor and Lily told me that he has sailed all over the world.
He bought his boat from the family of
Photo: Mission
The Better Pirate?
a man who had died recently. The family asked him to look around the boat to see if they could find any of the old man's "hidden treasure." They had decided the old man had squirreled away precious items on the boat, but I guess they didn't want to be bothered with actually pulling her apart to find it. While they have been refurbishing the boat, Pete and Scarlett have kept an eye out for stuff, but hadn't found much.
Scarlett told me when they took possession of the boat, it contained "four of everything." Among the contents were several backpacks. Scarlett happened to need a backpack when she got her motorcycle, so she grabbed one of those that had come with the boat. Inside one of the many zippered pockets of the backpack she found a small diamond ring. She also found the gold-plated coin that had been placed under the mast when they removed that during the refurbishing process after Pete had searched in vain to retrieve it. This caused her to ask us, "Now who's the better pirate?" As if you have to ask.