Flipper

What's this? A Goat with a heart?:wacko: No need to worry - normal evilness continues: "Deadly cliffs". Nice joke Goat, slipped in slyly at the end, and another deadly cliffhanger to jangle our worry beads over Christmas

Cliffhanger = "an ending line that leaves one in suspense" (Chambers). Consider the final stress-inducing passage by The Goat (one of many ): "Atlantis, entombed within the three story deep churning wall of whitewater with only part of her mast protruding above, dove deeper in the frothy water, the pressure – far more than she had been designed to withstand – forcing water in from countless points. What faint light there was dimmed to nothing, leaving Trevor in a lightless maelstrom of sound and violence. In the heart of the seething whitewater, Atlantis’s bows lurched even further down, sending Trevor plummeting into the cabin wall. He felt the hammerblows shaking Atlantis and the deafening roar, along with the sickening sensation of speed" So exactly what sort of reaction is intended to be created in the minds of anxious and worried readers? Peace and calm? A relaxed and tranquil state of mind?:wacko: I don't think so 　 And another thing - given the structural weakness of a cat (see http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5265554.html - "Catamaran hulled boats have an inherent structural weakness in that the pontoons act as large levers stressing the deck. In rough seas, many decks have been broken by such stresses") and the evil relish with which The Goat describes the "massive" sea assault on Atlantis, how can traumatised readers realistically expect her to survive not being crushed and ripped apart? If this is not "an ending line that leaves one in suspense" then what is? :blink: 　 BTW some vids (not in the southern ocean) showing the fearsome power of an angry sea: "Luxury cruise turns into an nightmare" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDbRFvCFDF4 No audio but fun to watch restaurant + diners trashed. That is, fun in a goatish way (i.e. mean, cruel + twisted ). "Cruise ship almost capsizes" "Huge wave hits huge cruise ship" FayeKane's comment: "Notice that it actually ' jolted ' this ship when it slapped against it.! Its a deep sea's componding weight through its motion. Like hitting a ' liquified ' Iceberg. For it to have moved this massive cruise ship weighing thousands of tons, the water's force of impact ' equaled ' it by measure of weight".

I understand that in return for a large bag of cash Google will "fix" its search engine so that the donor of said large bag of cash gets the search results he wants. Of course it would be scurrilous to suggest the Goat was guilty of such mean, crooked and underhand tactics ... without any evidence of his ruthless and single-minded determination to pin this award on anyone but himself

Actually, despite you being an evil, manipulative old goat an' all, the thanks are all ours

Thanks Red I'm shivering already

Hmmmm, nice More seriously, Trev's heading into the polar southern ocean with no clothes, much colder air temperatures and probably continuous strong wind - actually more like continous gales, if not unimaginably strong (for us landlubbers) storm-force gales So, what air temperatures are we talking about this time of year? And what will the effective temperature be once the wind-chill is factored in? And not forgetting the additional chill of Trev being wet all the time he's out on deck (being naked an' all apart from Joel's sexy, skimpy ripped shorts/loincloth thing ) Oh, there's just one other thing (as Columbo would say ). Trev might have rigged up a trailing line to grab if he falls overboard. But what use is this? The sea temparature will be be so cold he'll likely die from thermal shock or hypothermia

Aaaah, the lure of those knitting needles. So many patterns, so many stitches, so little time ....

Guess where? Ozzieland Guess how? Build himself a wingsail Clue? "He glanced up at the salon

Shouldn't that be Evil King of Cliffhangers?

Trev's sailing (more or less) along a line of longitude which, if it's one that passes through or close by Reunion, means he'll be saved But if he's on the "wrong" line of longitude then the astrolabe won't tell him and he's doooomed So Trev has to discover a solution to the problem of longitude in chapter 53.

Thanks CJ - works a treat OK then - I'm a bit (well quite a bit actually) sceptical that Trev, clever and resourceful as he is (not to mention indestructible, sexy, naked and sweaty ) could get sufficiently accurate readings from his homemade astrolabe / sexytant thingy to be within the margin of error required realistically to avoid missing Reunion. Maybe on the deck of the Queen Mary, in calm seas - but on the moving deck of his catamaran? With a swinging dangly thing to read off the scale with precision? It will surely be swinging around as the boat will be in constant movement in all planes, including towards and away from the paper scale as well as up and down the scale? How do you get a true average reading from that? I mean it sounds OK on paper, but in the real world?

Changing Lanes And for my prize ....... if anyone could tell me how to include the poster's name date + time when pasting quotes that would be cool

Sadly, news reports aren't always reliable :wacko: And, even if true, "Mr Cliff Hanger" could be an alias adopted as a purely ironic moniker

Etymology of CIRCUMNAVIGATE Latin circumnavigatus, past participle of circumnavigare to sail around, from circum- + navigare to navigate (Merriam-Webster) From Latin circumnāvigātus, perfect passive participle of circumnāvigō (

Another mystery!!!! Atlantis is clearly a write-off (the narrator never lies!) so, assuming Trev makes it back to civilisation he can just fly back home. But then the title's promise "Circumnavigation" won't have been delivered. Could he buy a replacement? Yeah sure, just wander into some "used yacht lot" with his insurance money and snap up a "one careful owner - low mileage" bargain? But why would he bother - Atlantis was his love (along with Joel of course!)

Look, The Goat's trying to pin the blame on Ali when he is in fact the Fat Controller here (see Thomas the Tank Engine for more details), dishing out life and death to innocent characters according to his whim like some merciless Roman Emperor!

Welcome Adventurous. You've confirmed my previous post (48) that Trev's now fishfood. And you're a real freediver so you should know!

Bad idea - we need our cheap thrills:D Good idea - Billy Goats have beards right? Off with the beard!!:2hands:

All right then!!!

I knew it - you're an insurance salesman! Grumble, grumble MANIPULATING!! Mutter, mutter TRICKSY!! Whine, whine CLEVER WAY WITH WORDS!! Hmmmmmmphh WELL MAYBE NOT COMPLETELY EVIL - JUST MOSTLY!! All right then!!!

Spawn of Satan!

.That's right - pure evil, pure malignant evil.