LAST EDITED ON 05-28-07 AT 03:14 PM (EST)

A Casting Wish:

From my first read of Tribe’s intriguing game premise, I had thought to be The Ship. But, principally because I have never set foot on the smallest of sailboats (much less upon the decks of a grand Tall Ship), after several hours of wandering about her fascinating website, I’ve reluctantly concluded that I’m simply not qualified to ‘speak’ for the S/V Barque Picton Castle.

I truly hope, though, that one of you will assume her Pirate Master role. What a splendid, entertaining and (potentially) sidesplittin’ funny yarn she has to spin! In fact, in the entry in his Log regarding her incarnation as a ghostly pirate ship, Captain Daniel Moreland proffers that she may well be the star of the show. And it should come as no surprise that I agree!

So, to that end, I’ll do my best to entice the enlistment of a saltier dog than I to play her part with these additional links to tidbits of the tale:

In this post to the Crew’s Journal, there is confirmation that all of us who speculated that the cast of Pirate Master must have received some sail training were right! But, for a wonderfully detailed description of the relationship between her professional crew, her cadre of trainees and the cast of Pirate Master and its production personas, you will have to read the whole thing …

Sailing from her homeport in Nova Scotia and bound for the Caribbean (first to Grenada and then on to her February date in Dominica), on December 8, 2006 the Picton Castle lost a mate and a friend to a stormy sea. There is a very moving tribute to Laura on the site. I was particularly struck by the entry that provided a candid perspective of the friction engendered by the ship’s loss of one of her own vis a vis the press’ loss of ‘Bob Gainey’s daughter’.

Here, for all of us lubbers who will soon have to find our ways around her, are interactive ‘maps’ of her sails and decks. I’ve decided to forego any attempt to learn her ropes. There are well over a hundred o' th’ snakin’, slitherin’ devils!

Finally:

For all of our scurvy East Coast spoiling community, here is the ship’s East Coast Summer 2007 itinerary. She was in Charleston harbor (and open to the public) May 18 to 20 and she’ll be at anchor in Norfolk and receiving visitors June 7 to 12, in Newport June 27 to July 1, in Halifax July 13 to 16, in Port Hawkesbury July 18 to 19 and in Sydney July 21 to 23.

And the scuttlebutt is that many of the crewmembers who sailed aboard her in the Caribbean (and during the filming of Pirate Master) are still aboard. Fair winds, following seas and good grillin’, me hardies!

Sad to say, e'en wi' all me sails aloft, this be me top speed!