Circumnavigation 50: Crushed

[MikeL]

If I'm not mistaken, the name Cliff was given to CJ by our resident frog who also certifies chapters as not containing cliffhangers.

Actually, I have it on good authority that Cliff (diminutive of Clifford) is CJ's real first name. I must point out that the only certification Cliff James has received came not from me personally, but from the prestigious Amphibian Anti-Cliffhanger League. See the award here. It was awarded at the conclusion of Changing Lanes and not at the end of an individual chapter. Indeed the League determined that all the cliffhangers contained in the story were resolved only at the end of the last chapter.

Edited November 1, 2010 by MikeL

[hh5]

Also, I figured that Trevor had to salvage something from the pirate ship. Also, bear in mind that the garlic crusher is not empty. There is a jar inside. A jar of what? It's in the text of chapter 15.

 

Perhaps a surprise from Joel ... some money?? some ear rings

[Conner]

The garlic press was disappointing.

 

I thought for sure it was going to be a dildo.

[glimsong]

The sextant was in the nav desk drawer. In the short term, Trevor could navigate: he knew where he was, and can get direction from the stars and sun. But.. one can only get so far by dead reckoning.

 

Yea but Australia is rather big and once he gets to the coast-line he just has to navigate using it as a point of reference.

[Benji]

Yea but Australia is rather big and once he gets to the coast-line he just has to navigate using it as a point of reference.

 

........ The clue here was left by the goat upon Trevor's miraculous survival, Trevor studied the night sky while in the water, surveying the night sky's, he notes his position here. Taking a leap of an assumption, what if Captain Ali considers re-hoisting the sail on the Atlantis to sail it back to his boat. That would be much easier then trying to take the engines out at sea and transporting them back, of course this is all based on assumption that he believes that the Atlantis is still afloat. Still Captain Ali is in between a rock and a hard place, so the try is not a reach for him. Trevor welcomes them all back Fewer crewman since the job only requires re-rigging of the mast makes it easier for Trevor to take them out. I still see Captain Ali's eyes bulge out at the resurrected Trevor, he will still be in disbeleif while the sharks feast on him. This way, Trevor is still out of communication until he either catches up to the other yachts or or travels to Australia. Australia is still the key here!

[glimsong]

Just because Ali knows how to drive a boat doesn't mean he knows how to sail one. Learning to sail is pretty complicated most people that drive a powered boat don't know how. I think if Ali comes back it will be for the engines (likely just parts since he won't be able to move them himself), but how will he get them to work with his own engines (we have been repeatedly made aware that American parts are very different from parts made to fit manufacturing from other countries)? If he's over 12 hours away at 7 knots that's still 12 hours for the Atlantis to 'sink'. He doesn't know it won't nor does he know it will be slower to sink than a standard monohull with a heavy keel.

Edited October 29, 2010 by glimsong

[glimsong]

I have an idea how this is going to pan out. It is merely conjecture on my part but in the theme of the story it makes a lot of sense.

[ret2ak]

Frankly I enjoyed this chapter. Maybe the escape was not certain as some have pointed out, but it was very clever. I was raised in the depression and WW II so I am used to serials where our hero is thrown off a cliff to certain death. Next week they rewind and it turns out he was not thrown off a cliff. Really stupid. Kind of like a Baptist preacher telling a Doubting Thomas that the story of David and Jonathan doesn't mean what it says, but Leviticus means exactly what it says. So for an author who claims he doesn't like cliffhangers I think he is a vast improvement over a 1940s serial scipt writer. Charles Lane.

[Hoskins]

Ares is in Australia, Trevor's mom is alive and married to a hot dude with a hot son of his own for Trev, Lisa pops out some kids and Joel gets bald fat and happy, Dirk and Jim get a couple of gigs as Carol Channing and Ethel Merman, and they all live happily ever after?

 

Also there is a terrible canal accident.

[C James]

Actually, I have it on good authority that Cliff (diminutive of Clifford) is CJ's real first name. I must point out that the only certification Cliff James has received came not from me personally, but from the prestigious Amphibian Anti-Cliffhanger League. See the award here. It was awarded at the conclusion of Changing Lanes and not at the end of an individual chapter. Indeed the League determined that all the cliffhangers contained in the story were resolved only at the end of the last chapter.

 

Ummm, any chance of a cliffhanger-free award for chapter 48?

 

And, ahem, my name is not Cliff! (We all know that a goat would never have anything to do with a cliff, or a cliffhanger!) Err, well, um, sorta on the name...

 

CJ is a name I go by online and off. Even my relatives call me CJ. It's actually an abbreviation for a nickname my friends pegged me with on a surfing safari in my teens... For those who have read my short story "Category %" on my site, and remeber the water entry scene (the protagonist has to get himself, and his surfboard, into the water off the top of a, er, vertical rocky escarpment, and does so by timing the storm's waves and then jumping). Well, I did a much milder version of that; smaller escarpment, smaller waves, milder storm. So, after my freinds declaired me insane after seeing me do it (it really wasn't that risky) they came up with that name, which stuck.

I got pegged with the name (the J stands for Jumper, and the Frog never lets me forget what the C stands for...)

 

Gotta love the irony: me, a devout avoider of cliffs, going by the initials of the my surfing nickname.. CJ.

 

Perhaps a surprise from Joel ... some money?? some ear rings

 

It's actually a jar of sea salt.

 

........ The clue here was left by the goat upon Trevor's miraculous survival, Trevor studied the night sky while in the water, surveying the night sky's, he notes his position here. Taking a leap of an assumption, what if Captain Ali considers re-hoisting the sail on the Atlantis to sail it back to his boat. That would be much easier then trying to take the engines out at sea and transporting them back, of course this is all based on assumption that he believes that the Atlantis is still afloat. Still Captain Ali is in between a rock and a hard place, so the try is not a reach for him. Trevor welcomes them all back Fewer crewman since the job only requires re-rigging of the mast makes it easier for Trevor to take them out. I still see Captain Ali's eyes bulge out at the resurrected Trevor, he will still be in disbeleif while the sharks feast on him. This way, Trevor is still out of communication until he either catches up to the other yachts or or travels to Australia. Australia is still the key here!

 

Australia is the key... and who is in Australia? Graeme! Hrmmm, very suspicious!

 

Just because Ali knows how to drive a boat doesn't mean he knows how to sail one. Learning to sail is pretty complicated most people that drive a powered boat don't know how. I think if Ali comes back it will be for the engines (likely just parts since he won't be able to move them himself), but how will he get them to work with his own engines (we have been repeatedly made aware that American parts are very different from parts made to fit manufacturing from other countries)? If he's over 12 hours away at 7 knots that's still 12 hours for the Atlantis to 'sink'. He doesn't know it won't nor does he know it will be slower to sink than a standard monohull with a heavy keel.

 

Bingo on the sailing! He had a hard time even getting Atlantis to stop.

 

Good point. The parts would be useless; very different engines (in both size and design). However, he might be able to make use of the entire engine.

 

Frankly I enjoyed this chapter. Maybe the escape was not certain as some have pointed out, but it was very clever. I was raised in the depression and WW II so I am used to serials where our hero is thrown off a cliff to certain death. Next week they rewind and it turns out he was not thrown off a cliff. Really stupid. Kind of like a Baptist preacher telling a Doubting Thomas that the story of David and Jonathan doesn't mean what it says, but Leviticus means exactly what it says. So for an author who claims he doesn't like cliffhangers I think he is a vast improvement over a 1940s serial scipt writer. Charles Lane.

 

Thank you! I always try, in any risky situation a character might be in, to make sure the "way out" is plausible and realistic, and also non-obvious.

 

Ares is in Australia, Trevor's mom is alive and married to a hot dude with a hot son of his own for Trev, Lisa pops out some kids and Joel gets bald fat and happy, Dirk and Jim get a couple of gigs as Carol Channing and Ethel Merman, and they all live happily ever after?

 

Also there is a terrible canal accident.

 

LoL! We shall see...