"Cuttlefish."

Our nephew is over at our house on a sleepover, and while browsing through our movie shelf, he noticed our copy of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and asked, "I've haven't seen this. Can we watch it?". Normally on a school night, I would decline, but since it was a pirate movie (and tomorrow is also a minimum day at school anyways), I said, "Sure, why not?".

So after dinner, the munchkins, my nephew, and I were treated to the adventures of Captains Sparrow, Barbossa, Turner, Swann, Jones, and Feng. Gosh, I forgot how long this movie was. That first act with the journey to and from Davy Jones' Locker was a bit slow. The munchkins' attention spans were strained at that point, and they kept wandering in and out of the family room. But they settled in when the movie got interesting again.

I have to admit that Captain Barbossa is my favorite character. He stole the first movie, redeemed the second with his appearance with the final shot of the film, and is just plain cool in the third (although it seems he's forgotten that Sparrow and friends had him killed at the end of the first movie...). I'm going to have to get the action figure of this guy.

Rise of the Fiends Just Released!

Earlier today was the release of WizKids' latest expansion to their Pirates of the Cursed Seas Pocketmodel game, The Rise of the Fiends. During my lunch break, I purchased three game packs at my FLGS, Great Escape Games. After getting home, I busted open the packs, and one of the packs happens to be the Super-rare pack. Woohoo!

Me Likey!

It looks like the Spanish are indeed getting some love! the WizKids Card Gallery has been updated with more Rise of the Fiends cards (A Sneak Peek #3 coming soon?), and four of the cards are Spain specific: Blood Money, Concepcion, Inquisitor, and San Esteban.

"Blood Money" - A killer treasure!

"Concepcion" - Typical treasure ship

"Inquisitor" - He's baaack!

"San Esteban" - Typical ship with nice sails

Spain is looking good for the next set. Yea!!!

Spanish Nation Finally Getting Some Love?

I'm cruising the WizKids forum tonight, and I found this little response from Woelf, a WizKids Rules Arbiter:



That response could either mean an indirect confirmation, or he/she could just be jacking with us. I want to be positive and think that Woelf is trying to "tell" us that the Spanish Nation in the Pirates Pocketmodel game is finally going to get some better ships.

For too long now, the Spanish have been getting the shaft when it comes to ship stats and distribution, and WizKids takes joy in reinforcing that fact by printing it on the Spanish card's flavor text! Yeah, yeah, historically we all know that Spain was on the decline, but geez, it's a game. Who really wants to play a faction that has maybe only two or three good ships from a game that's covered ten expansions?!? With WizKids leaning towards a more "fantasy" theme to its game, let's hope that Spain will finally be able to sit at the "grown-up table"...

Pirates: Rise Of The Fiends Sneak Peek #2

Today, WizKids announced a second Sneak Peek is now available for the upcoming expansion to their Pirates of the Cursed Seas Pocketmodel Game, Rise of the Fiends. Their second preview offers one unique treasure, a crew member, and two ships. Take a look now at what's to come towards the end of January!

I have been following this game since its release back in 2004, when it was originally called Pirates of the Spanish Main CSG (They changed their game name to Pockmodel to avoid copyright infringement with Wizards of the Coast). I don't play much, I mainly collect the styrene cards more for the cool little ships you can build from them. It's pretty addicting to collect!

Now Sailing!

Jump on board Sony Online Entertainment's latest MMORPG, Pirates Of The Burning Sea, for their Pre-Boarding Party! I checked their pre-order page, and it has been updated with download links of their install program and files. If you purchased a pre-order package (I've seen them on sale for as cheap as $5), you can play up to two weeks before the official release! You also get some cool stuff such as parrot, and the soundtrack on CD! From what I understand, you can also carry over your character and stuff when the game is officially opened!

I'm at work at the moment, so I can't join in the fun just yet. Fortunately, since I played during the beta, I don't have to re-download all those files again (at least 5gigs worth!), just the patch files. As soon as I get home, and the munchkins are fed and happy (maybe I'll shovel the munckins a quick Happy Meal so I can play sooner... j/k!), I'll be logging in to re-create my Spanish Freetrader, Inigo (a no-prize bonus to whoever can tell me where the name comes from!), and setting sail to exotic destinations in the Caribbean! Hope to see you in port or maybe on the other side of me cannon! Arrrr!

Pirate Themed Veggie Tales Movie Coming

I'm browsing the web on the kitchen table this morning with the munchkins watching Spongebob Squarepants on the tube behind me, when a commercial ad for the latest Veggie Tales flick, The Pirates Who Won't Do Anything comes on. The noise that blares from the tube when the kids are watching is white noise to me, but the word Pirates piqued my ears...

I didn't even know the Veggie Tales franchise had another movie coming out, much less a pirate themed one. I browsed over to IMDB, and sure enough, the flick is coming out next week on the 11th. I like the Veggie Tales DVDs (they're gentle enough with life lessons for the kids without smashing it over their heads with a mallet), and a pirate themed one is even more interesting. I'll have to think about taking the munchkins to see this next week...

Trip To The Book Store

We've had some extremely rainy and windy (up to 60 mph!) weather since last night, which is the first of the winter season for this area. So naturally, we've had fallen trees, fences, and power poles littered everywhere, and for California, that means lots of traffic accidents too!

Anyways, while I was at work today (I've got one of those office cubicle jobs), we've been experiencing multiple power outages ranging in length from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours! Later this afternoon, our department manager gave us the go ahead to take off early. I bolted outta there and instead of heading straight home, I decided to drop by our local Borders to check out a book I've been interested in.

After weaving around decimated plant life, automobile accidents, and flooded corners, I arrived at the book store. I went to the Military History section hoping to find the Osprey series of books dedicated to ships. To my unfortunate surprise, there were no ship books from the series to be found! Oh well, I guess not this time.

I rounded the corner of the aisle of books and ran into Transportation section. Normally, the only books on naval vessels in this section are usually about the Titanic, but I decided to browse through and give it a shot at finding something interesting. Sure enough, I found a great book, The Complete Encyclopedia of Sailing Ships 2000 BC - 2006 AD!

The book, written by John Batchelor and Christopher Chant, is not as meaty as I would expect for an encyclopedia (it runs for 318 pages), but it had enough entries to keep me happy! It has loads of color pics too. The entries are of specific sailing ships and generic types as well. It's organized by the year the ships were generally created. The only major gripe I have with the book is that there are no dedicated entries for events. For example, the Battle of Flamborough Head was only mentioned in passing in an entry for the Ranger! And no dedicated entry for the Bonhomme Richard or Serapis? For shame!

In all, I didn't get the book I wanted, but I've got some nice substitute reading for this weekend instead.

Pre-Boarding To Begin On Monday!

The Pirates of the Burning Sea MMORPG is ready to sail later this January, but you can access the game through a pre-order as early as this coming Monday, January 7th! I participated during the open beta period this past month, and I had a blast playing! The sailing portion of the game is very similar (and fun!) to Sid Meir's Pirates! computer game, and the off-ship portion of the game is pretty much your typical MMORPG affair.

After trying out the beta, I went to my local Best Buy and got a pre-order copy for ten bucks. The pre-order package includes a code you can enter to access the Pre-Boarding Party as early as January 7th, which basically gives you early access to the game before the official launch later this month. The package also includes a soundtrack CD of the in-game music, which is pretty cool. I'll post a review of the CD sometime later.

If you're into computer games and playing the role of a sea captain during the swashbucking days of the bucaneer, check out the game!

Welcome And Best Wishes For The New Year!

I began this blog because I'm a big fan of the High Seas and the Age of Sail. My appreciation goes back to when I was in the third grade, and while looking through an illustrated history book, I caught a glimpse of a painting of two naval warships duking it out under the cover of darkness. These two ships just happened to be the Serapis and the Bonhomme Richard from the Battle of Flamborough Head. After seeing that picture, I was hooked.

I plan to contribute on a regular basis in providing any news, trivia, or personal thoughts on the subject of sailing ships, their crew, and the waters they travel. With the recent influx in movies, books, and games, I hope to be posting for quite some time! So sit back, have a grog, and enjoy!