When something goes wrong, everyone thinks they know how to fix it. The anchor chain is stuck and has to be hauled in or we will be sitting ducks. Everyone puts their two shillings in and still no resolve. It has to be fixed now !! Try more grease, try more men to haul it in , try more grease, no remove the grease , no use ......STOP just think what happened between the last time it worked and now??? What is different? No the wench's on board did not curse it , no the extra rum consumed had nothing to do with it , well maybe. What is not the same ? Or who is not the same? The last one to set the anchor was Icelandic John, when we were in Port Charles. Today it was set by the new guy, what's his name.. the guy that is from Holland , Holland John he set it. WHAT IS DIFFERENT? Oh Holland John ties the chain off to the aft link to keep the chain from cutting into the hull. ...so we untie the chain and it works and we are on are way .... to bad we lost two good men Holland John and Icelandic John on the way.

Christmas as a pirate is just like Christmas is to everyone else, it's Christmas. As a pirate you really don't give many gifts but you sure do get allot of them, because as a pirate you know that the day is just right to pirate, lots of good stuff out there !!!! It is like a big after Christmas sale, with everything free. (as a pirate every thing is !!!)

It is a very small world when you board a ship and find out that one of the crew you just about cut through is from your home port, and knows your family. How do you explain your behavior? Do you tell them to say "hi "to mom and dad when he gets free from the brig? Make sure he has some rum before he walks the plank? Strand him on a nice island? Give him a dingy with some water, and no holes in it? It nice to be a pirate because it doesn't matter what I do I am still a pirate !

The bigger the better? Not sure if that is always true. A small fast ship can getaway, a small cannon can be moved quickly, and small wenches can be stowed away in a trunk. Now a small sword is a knife, a small gun is a pistol, and a small ship is a dingy, and a small wench is well just a small wench.

They show up out of nowhere, and then they think they are part of the crew, but they are not. These are the " hope they like me and don't kill me" . The poor souls who think the life of a pirate is glamorous. That being a pirate is just an adventure for one to try. We all know a few like this, they want to belong as long as it fits their fancy. The whats cool today and fashionable. As a pirate it is not fashionable ( although I have a nice hat) and as for glamorous, well lets just say there are no bathes on a ship and very little soap if any. There is a glamorous side of pirates , the lady pirates .... but there are only in ones' dreams. ( he real lady pirates would cut you to ribbons if ya ever said the were "glamorous".)

What is the point to all the books of how to pirate ? DO YOU REALLY NEED TO BE TOLD HOW TO PIRATE ? The world is full of books of people telling you how to be like they want you to be or how they think you should be. I think being a pirate is just that, "being a pirate". If I have to explain then you must need to read a book of how to be a pirate.

Life as a pirate can change with the fire of a cannon, the thrust of a cutlass the blast of a musket and the change of the crew. When a new crew member comes on board it is not always easy to welcome them. It is not always their choice to be on board either. Lucky I am a pirate if I don't like who I work with I can always toss them overboard and shanghai someone new. ( well I can't alway shanghai who I want, like a redhead )

They came they went, they said "........."(Nothing) that's it. The King of Pirates stopped by. Oh to be King. Well oh!! to just being a PIRATE !!!

Working hard today to fix the ship, you know those jobs that should only take half a day to get the job done. Barnacles scrape off, pull off planks, cause railing to split, snags the sail, put a tear in the sail, the sail loses draft cause too much wind in main sail, snaps rigging, and now the week is shot. If I was not a pirate I would run away and become one.

Even as a pirate there is nothing quite as great as a visit from Mom. Yes it is true that some moms are , well worse then scurvy dogs. The visit from my folks on the other hand is a great joy and re-confirms why I am a Pirate. I am like my Mom, one of the truly great pirates. When you come from a fine line of Pirates nothing makes you prouder then to show off your living pirate heritage. (I just wish I was captain of my own ship and not sailing one of hers)

Fix the the rigging, mend the sails, buy more powder, what happened to the treasure that we fought so hard to acquire? You would hope a pirate could just spend the booty on wenches and rum !

Some days you just need to not pirate. I did not say stop being a pirate , it is some days doing nothing is great. But that's what I do as a pirate anyway.

When ye have been pirating for 30 plus years you think you have the hang of it. The nice thing is for the past 21 years my first mate has been my best friend. I might not know all there is to being a pirate, but to have my best friend at my side through thick and thin I see only clear water and a strong wind in the sails and plenty of treasures.

It is hard to say what makes "bad news" when you're all ready for a fight. The news that the fight has been delayed due to a storm and you now have more time to prepare, or the fight has been delayed and you have more time to prepare. When it is time, it is time, and to delay is ...well so unsettling. More troubles could come up, like the Spanish Armada, a British war ship, scurvy, more bad weather and lots of stuff to worry about. As a pirate, delays just aren't good things. Well, a delayed hangin' is not so bad.

Sometimes as a pirate one has to make choices. They are not always the easy ones like the red head or the blond. The ships you choose to attack can be laden with treasure, or they could be a death trap.

You hear of a ship full of fine ladies headed to Jamaica for a royal wedding there and you say "That sounds fun!" The crew is looking forward to the fun and adventure that a ship like this could bring. Then you say to yourself, "What am I going to do with this fine lot of wenches when we're through?" You can't give 'em back and you can't kill 'em, and no way can you keep 'em. It is hard sometimes to be a pirate and make choices like that. Well if you do make choices.

When you're a Pirate you stretch the truth a lot. Well... you lie a lot, and not just to the local wenches. There are times when not being truthful is needed to keep a rope from around your neck or to deceive some poor ship into thinking you're a whaling vessel in distress. That is part of life as a pirate. But lying to your crew or your mates... that's death! Not just by the code. When you lie, it can mean no trust from the crew that has your back (that's when you can get stabbed in the back , from more then the enemy). Why does one need to lie to the crew or ask you to lie for them? This is the reason pirates vote on who is going to be captain. And one is not promoted to captain just because he has been on the ship a long time. (The parrot would run the ship by that standard.) To lie to get booty is great. Other than that, why lie?

The real nice thing about working as a pirate is that you know it is going to be the same job forever. It does not need to go to "Lean Management", "Just-in-Time Delivery", SIGMA 6, ISO 2100 or anything else that is new on the horizon. As a pirate you just need to watch the horizon and pirate. The need to be trained and have team- building exercises for pirates is like telling a crab not to pinch. As a pirate it is just natural to pirate or you wouldn't do it. So don't try to change me. I like being a pirate.

One thing I have seen this time of year is that there are a lot of people dressing like pirates. The funny thing is you don't see pirates dressing up like them.

Are you needed or not ? On a pirate ship every hand is needed, even if it has a hook on the end. There are no pirates that are just there to observe, stand by, supervise, or are along for the ride. If you don't help out, you're out. That is either a sort drop at the end of a rope or a splash at the end of the plank. It is always nice to know you are needed. I love the life of a pirate.

You're out at sea just testing the new riggings when a small Spanish galleon crosses your path. Lo and behold, the Captain says, " Let's take 'er, mates!" He turns to you and says, "Hey, yer in charge now." The first mate is still on shore and the second mate is still down with scurvy. What do you do? What do you think? And will you get paid the extra shares for the work you're about to undertake? No clue here, I'm just a pirate and I do what the captain says. If I am in charge then I am in charge. If I would say "no way" I would have been cut down and the next man would be in charge. Now that might sound cruel, violent, even barbaric, but hey, we're pirates.

The powder monkey is a key shipmate when going into battle. His job is to make sure there is plenty of gun powder for the cannons. Without powder the cannon is just another anchor. The powder monkey is usually the new guy, a stow-away kid, some one shanghaied, or someone in trouble. This never makes much sense to me because his role as the powder monkey is a crucial one in any fight. The problem is that working with gun powder can shorten your stay with the crew (and life). Too many powder monkeys get blown to bits. Why would you want someone in such a key role be expendable? Would it not be wiser to have a sharp veteran of explosives to handle the gun powder? Someone who knows what they are doing wouldn't be as likely to get blown to bits. Just maybe there are not any left who are wise , or they are wise and don't do it any more.

After the battle or in the midst of the fight you often do not think of the cost of the fight. The code allows for certain medical coverage, an extra share of the loot for the loss of a leg or a hand, and for the loss of an eye . The problem is when you lose a hand, what you get is a nice cloth wrap. They don't tell you that it costs you more for a hook, and a nice one like Captain Hook's will set you back even more . The trouble is they don't tell you this until you are sitting there with no hand and Old Saw Bones is cleaning you up.

Is there a school for pirates ? The only one I know is "hard knocks" and "Press Gang". There should be a school so one could maybe get a refresher course on Boarding, plundering and a class on pillaging. It would be nice to go back to school and have class mates, home work, papers to write, test to take and assignments that would be due ... maybe that is why there is no school for pirates it would be burned down!!!

Your friends are hung, others are run through and some are marooned. Now what? Is it all loss and despair? Not for a Pirate. Pirates really don't need all that "oh life is hard" and "poor me all is lost" because everyday that is way life is, why did you think we became pirates? If all wasn't lost and life was so good one would not need to be a pirate. .. well maybe not.

Pirate party, what a night, bon-fire, sword fights, cooked meat, wild stories, more sword fights, drinking, more food, wild times and no sleep. Life is good till you need sleep the next day!!

Some days swabbing the deck, trimming the main sail, loading the cannons, plundering towns, sinking ships, and all that other pirate work is just fun. Even though it is work, and hard work, sometimes it's just plain fun being a pirate.

Today a young wench from a local tavern needed my help. Why come to me? I am just a pirate. This poor wench was put in charge of a treasure map. Everyone else at the tavern saw the map and went looking for the treasure. However, no one besides her knew what island the map was of. And without a bearing of where to start from they could not get to the treasure. Now being the nice pirate I am, and wanting some of the loot, I offered some ideas and suggestions. Knowing that she was the only who knew where to start from, I gave her tips on a crew, a good captain, some hardy mates and how to read a good map.

Hopefully, when she finds the treasure, she will share the loot with me, being the good, helpful pirate that I am. Or maybe I'll just take it all myself.

We need to talk

Today, they say is the day to " talk like a pirate" . Is there another way to talk? Why would they need a day to talk like a pirate? (There are even web pages to help those who feel that they don't know how to talk like a pirates.) ...... So are there days for pirates to talk like idiots? I like being a pirate everyday, therefore I don't need an excuse to talk any different then I do everyday.

Can one have too much loot? You rob some here, steal some there, raid a little, plunder and then what ? You have too much loot? As a pirate the best loot is the stories you can tell of how you got what you have, even if whats left is just junk to everyone else. The story behind each piece of junk are the treasures for life. And if your a pirate who is going to tell to clean up your stuff anyway?

"Swing on - Swing all" If you are going to join the Pirate union "local 777" then you'll be hanging with us too !

Friends who are pirates, pirate friends, does this work? I think pirates make great friends. What is a friend , one that likes you no matter who you are, like a pirate, is there for you in a tough fight, like a pirate, accepts your quirky habits , like a pirate. Hey we should find more pirate friends and maybe the world would be a better place. Well at lest for pirates.

One must do what they have to do. As a pirate no one ever questions this and "The code", you have heard is more or less a guideline. No one really ever questions why a pirate does stuff, for if they do it is more then likely the last question they ask.

The day was a mess. Must get ready for a guest. The deck was swabbed, the mainsail was cleaned, boots and swords were polished. The crew had to be on their best behavior. We even flogged a few for not having their boots polished. (They did not own boots .. we just needed to make an example of how committed we were to impressing our guest). Cannons were all loaded for an eighteen gun salute (only have 18 cannons). Then the word came that our guest was going to be a no-show. (Something about a mermaid and her two large....) Well, it was a no-show.

Why all the effort to impress a guest? We are pirates. If someone wants to visit us and share a jug or two they can just stop by . If we are ready or not it does not matter. Is not the life of a pirate all about just doing nothing you don't want to anyway?

Are there better days to Pirate ? Does 9-9-09 bring good luck and lots of gold? Did 7-7-07 ? I would have to check the ships log to see. Lucky days happen when you are ready for them. Every day is lucky when you are a Pirate!

I've been raided

Nothing is the same once your ship has been raided. You might have won the fight and killed the enemy, but things are just not right around the cabin. Little things are out of place and replacing the stuff is harder than you thought. Then you find out more stuff is not right. So even though you thought you got enough gold to pay for the damages, you still need to come up with some more. It is just too bad you killed the the enemy or you could make them pay .

If the captain says "hey lets go plunder and rob that ship over there" you are all ready for it. And when it gets within cannon ball range, the captain is still in his cabin having lunch or talking with the first mate.... you begin to wonder, then you think hey we voted him in we can vote him out. Then we can have him walk the plank or just maroon him. Life of a Pirate is just fine.

Standing all day is not an easy task. Your feet get tired and your bones begin to hurt. Standing watch on the pirate ship all day is not the same. You get the gentle rocking of the boat, the nice sea breeze, the companionship of the hearty crew. And if you spot a ship for plunder you are the hero of the day.

When you sail the high seas for hours at a time it does not feel the same as working 12 hour shifts. How can that be, is it the salt air, the thought of treasures, some wild times with in some far away port? Work is work, swap the deck, rig the main sail etc. all sound like work to me. I guess a Pirates life is the way to be.

When you are out at sea and just relaxing with the crew, it is always hard to be ready to attack a ship when you run into one without being in the mood for blood and guts . So the advantage of a pirate is you don't have to if you don't want to. And when you want to it is most fun.

I kind know what one feels after ones' ship has been boarded by Pirates, you are not sure why they picked you, or why they would want to do that to you. And they leave a mess when they are done!!!