Pirates in Paradise 2008 - Key West, Fl
(Photo: Nicole Andreyko, Callahan Digital Art)
Chapter 8th - Of the later events on Saturday - Explaining
navigation and surgery; dinner with the charming Red Jessi and later,
somewhat sober, events.
2/6/08 Afternoon & Evening, Back in camp, I found Dutch explaining navigation to people on their way to the beach. The people seemed interested, so I got out my surgical equipment and we did some living history. I am glad, because I was beginning to wonder why I had paid to send my ever-growing supply of (now slightly rusting) surgical equipment down here. Dutch has a storehouse of information and he can explain the navigational duties in fascinating detail. He also has a sewn up bean bag sphere about the size of a grapefruit that he uses to represent the earth (see right). This turned out to be a really good thing to play catch with.
Below left: Dutch explaining the traverse board to an audience. Below center: Mission explaining something gross to another audience. Below right: Mission with his new toy - a real period-ish large bone saw. (Oh boy!)
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Jessi)
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(Photo: Jessi)
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(Photo: Mission)
(Photo: Mission)
withoutaname (left, who has picked a name: Agnes) and Justin (who has
had a name picked for him which I forgot) showed up at one of my
presentations. Since no more people were standing around, impatiently
demanding the details of sea surgery in the 18th century, we chatted after
my last presentation ended. They have been here since Friday last week and
have been involved in sailing. If you have read any of her posts on the
Pyracy
Pub forums, you know she and Justin are really into sailing, which turned out to be a
great advantage for me. (See right.)
(Photo: Jessi)
I brought my balancing scale that (unfortunately)
didn't have any thread connecting the pans to the balance. Dutch and
Justin sat with me and patiently unraveled twine to get the right
thickness for the little holes in my balancing scale and then proceeded to
re-wind the twine so that it was the right size. They then tied the
whole thing up. (The great thing about pirate events - there's always
someone willing to do things like this when you would be hopeless at doing
it yourself.) The twins, Mae and Brig also arrived. M.A. d'Dogge quickly
took responsibility for dipping them into the ocean in full garb, pics of
which will soon be available at Key West gift shops everywhere.
(Photo: Mary Diamond)
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(Photo: Lily and Edward)
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Above: The Saturday Dinner by Lilly Alexander that Jessi and I missed. (It was sad, but I thought it was well worth it.) Left: Silkie, Diosa and Josh Merriweather are on the left side of the table and Lily Alexander is on the right. Above right, a truly rare photo of the illusive Mark Diamond in his natural habitat (ohhhh, ahhhhh). That's Madam Grace next to him and Captain Jim with Lilly on the opposite side of the table. (Note the yin and yang jug configuration in the foreground. It promotes the Sealkie's Hide Fung Shui.)
(Photo: Someone at Cafe Sole)
The dinner last night was minestrone made by Lily Alexander. Alas, it
contained meat, so I had to make alternate plans. I conned Red Jessi into
going to one of my favorite restaurants in these parts: Cafe Sole. We
shared a bottle of wine and ordered hog snapper that has to be tasted to
believed. It has a sauce that contains red pepper which she said she
usually doesn't like, but decided to be adventurous and try anyhow.
She discovered what I already know - there's nothing like hog snapper at Cafe Sole. Even the sides (carrots, mashed potatoes and lima beans) are delicious. She noted that she didn't like lima beans normally, but these were really good. I overheard the waiter telling someone that the lima beans were marinated in something that makes them taste so good. (Probably rum.)
(Photo: Red Jessi)
We talked at length and I learned that she was a
ballet dancer all through high school, but she hurt her knee and wasn't
able to go professional. However, she was in some large ballets and is now
the only person I have ever met who has had their signed shoes sold at
auction. She was also an in-betweener at Disney where she worked on Mulan.
Cartooning had been a goal job of hers from her youth. However, she found
the work wasn't all it was cracked up to be and proceeded to go after her
degree in Psychology. She switched over to social work after finding an
affinity to it. (God love ya', girl. Better you than me.) Jessi is the
sort of person who reads the back of wine bottles to you. I had no idea
wine bottlers had staff writers on hand for the labels. Our wine was
apparently involved in intrigue in some strange foreign country (Italy? Guam? California?)
in the 16th or possibly 18th century and that's about the extent of
what I recall. Fortunately, there wasn't a test.
(Photo: Callahan Digital Art)
(Photo: Jessica Bagley)
Arriving back at the fort, we decided to head over to the pub in the fort.
Per usual, it was full of drunk pirates singing old sea tunes bawdily. The
acoustics there are terrible as well (someone really should have fired that
fort designer right off) and it became a little too loud and smoky, so we
left.
Jessi brought out her magnificent Ron Atlantico Private Cask rum again and I enjoyed a bit more of that. It's probably the best sipping rum I have ever tasted. In the US, it's only sold in South Florida.
Left: The drunken Bone Island Sextet. Right: Bawdy Be and her drums, feeling the groove in the Tavern.
(Photo: Madam Grace)
(Photo: Illegally obtained; probably
copyrighted by Warner Brothers
if they're smart.)
Things were dead when we got back to the Hide, so we
lit a few lanterns, which attracted Michael Bagley and Mark Gist, his friend
from Columbus. Jessi proceeded to explain and examine animation in
great detail. It turns out Mark is a huge animation fan as well. His
daughter is interested in computer animation. She recently moved to London where
she is working on getting permission on working.
I guess there is computer animation work in London, something I would never have suspected. Our little
group spent a great deal of time discussing animation and I was pleased to
find that everyone there were fans of Freakazoid!.
(Photo: "Poppa Ratsey" Callahan, Callahan Digital Art)
Feeling as if my senses were being overwhelmed by all the people, ideas
and information I try to remember to include in these journal entries, I
eventually left the Hide last night and wandered down to the beach to
stare at the dim, moonlit sea with its blinking lights on the horizon.
What was at the location where those lights blinked? How far would you
have to travel to find the next piece of land? The gentle washing of the
waves on the shore and the sun's reflection from the unhidden half of the
moon lulled me and I found myself lying on the beach staring at the stars.
Then I realized I was getting all moony because my blood sugar was
slipping, so I decided to head back here to grab something to right it.
(You thought I was going to go all poetic, didn't ya?).