C James

I was wondering... did anyone notice some of the... complications, in chapter 49? Dirk and Jim are three days from being indicted, but on the bright side, that will be a tremendous relief to Bridget. Now, who is the key to clearing Jim and Dirk? Trevor. Also, we've seen what a mess it made for Dirk and Jim when the bomb went off, so if Trevor vanished forever, what would the assumption be? Lisa and Joel... They had their perfect day, and as Lisa said at the very end, it's just perfect... is there any danger of anything spoiling it forever? Such as finding out at some point that Trevor was horribly murdered that day? And, a note about chapter 50: we do find out how Trevor's plunge ends. ************** Welcome, Adventurous!!! Freediving deep does have some profound physiological effects, doesn't it? It's just a nice, relaxing interlude chapter. But but but... It was Ali, not me, who tossed Trevor overboard. And he did so at Sanchez's bidding, so I think it's only fair to blame Ali, or Sanchez.. or both. Alternatively, where was Trevor heading? Australia! So, we could always just blame Australia... Well, the Australian connection might be there just so we can blame Graeme for it. And me, evil? When have i ever done anything evil? Atlantis's speed was four knots... that means about a mile (just a bit over) every fifteen minutes. Good point on Ali... he would not want to be spotted alongside Atlantis. As a side note, which isn't mentioned in the story, there have been several pirate attacks on yachts in the Seychelles area. However, these began around 2006, so Trevor had every reason to think himself safe once he reached the Seychelles. He wouldn't have heard of the problem, so he felt quite safe. Also, the method the pirates used to approach (including the intercept with their skiff) is a common tactic.

Chapter 49, The Question, is up! Chapter 49 has posted early! Chapter 50 will post no later than midnight Monday, my time, thus resuming our normal weekly posting. Oh, BTW, one question I can answer, if anyone asks, is how narrative timing works. CJ

Wait! Okay, upon rereading HH5's post, he's saying 48 is a mystery, so I'm inclined to count that, and that makes HH5 the # 6 vote. Thank you, HH5 and the other 5 in the thread who have given us an early chapter 49! :worship: Chapter 49 will be online within 5 minutes. Update: Chapter 49 has been posted.

E Tu Emoe :blink: I'm shocked, shocked that you would thingk poor, innocent me capable of a cliffie? Okay, We have 5 confirmed posts of cliffhanger-free. all it takes sis one more, just ONE more, and 49 posts right away,. Now, Wildone listed the 5 that meet the criteria, but he DID NOT AGREE HIMSELF. Had he done so, chapter 49 would be posted by now! Therefore, the reason we are still HANGING on chapter 49 is Wildone! I therefore and hereby nominate Wildone for the 2010 King of Cliffhangers Award! :king: Come on, one more? Just one, and I'll post chapter 49 immediately. It's all ready to go, and it's a good one.

Yipes!!! Ummm.. but, ummmm... How could a minor nautical difficulty, resulting in a perhaps-ever-so-slightly-tense chapter ending (which admittedly includes a mystery, such as whether Trevor lives or dies) be a disruption?? Surely that's not my fault! If it's anyone's fault, wouldn't that be Ali? He's the one who threw Trevor overboard, not me! Ummm, Graeme, only two little problems... your way of getting chapter 49 would take much longer than getting just two more people to add posts to this thread, declaring 48 cliffhanger-free. (okay, that's one, and I cannot count...) That makes four! Thanks Jan!!! BTW, to Flipper: See? that's wasn't so hard, now was it? Okay, only two declarations of 48 being cliffhanger-free to go, and we'll get chapter 49 posted!

ACK! But... but... but... it's not blackmail! I'm offering to post chapter 49 early! Out of the goodness of my heart... And all I ask in return is for a few members to agree that there was no cliffhanger. :blink: So far, we have Hoskins and Benji agreeing. I'll make this very easy: if just four more members agree that there was no cliffhanger, I'll post chapter 49 of Circumnavigation immediately. AND, to sweeten the deal, if this occurs, chapter 50 will post on midnight Monday, resuming our regular weekly posting schedule a chapter ahead. Now, how could anyone complain at an offer like that? Oh, and Wildone... your vote would get us 25% of the way there. How about it? :2hands:

Thanks to my wonderful team, I'm in a position to make an offer: to post chapter 49 of Circumnavigation early. Would that help? It's almost ready (I'm formatting it into HTML now). In return, all I ask is that the forum posters here aree that 48 wasn't a cliffhanger, becuase we all know I'd never write a cliffhanger, right? As soon as we're in agreement, I'll post chapter 49, "The Question". See? I'm not evil.

There's some great comments in this thread! I'm very constrained as to what I can say at this point... but there are some things I can share. One of them is that we aren't at the end of the novel: it will run past 60 chapters. The second point I can raise is that this is not a dream, it cannot be. There are scenes with the pirates on Atlantis after Trevor is thrown overboard, and that's in the narration. The narrator cannot lie. The only dreaming Trevor was doing was before being prodded awake by the gun, and the narration says he woke up. So, this is very real, and not a dream or hallucination. I'm absolutely not a fan of miraculous, overshadowed saves... So, no sudden encounters with submarines, etc, and even if a Navy ship arrived on the scene right at the end of the chapter, there is no conceivable way for them to figure out what happened and find Trevor in time. I'm a big fan of foreshadowing, and hiding clues in the text. I'll even mention that, somewhere in the posts above, someone mentions something that is very, very important. Does Trevor live or die? I am not allowed to say, but I will say this; if he lives, it will be plausibly, and not some wild miracle. Now, I'm well-known for totally avoiding cliffhangers of any kind so this situation is basically a mystery (and Circumnavigation is part mystery). The mystery is, does Trevor live, or die? If he dies, how will the story unfold from here on out? And if he lives, how does he do so? I'll come back to the thread soon; there are some awesome posts above I want to reply to, but I'm being driven offline by a thunderstorm.

Thanks Bleu! Yep, Cory is about ready to kill them, especially if they say "honest" one more time. But as Jake says at the end, what could possibly go wrong? 0:) Yep, they made a decision without consulting Corey, who can be volatile at times. Wildone!!! How can this be a cliffie? As Jake says, "what could possibly go wrong?" Hello and welcome!!! Thanks! Yep, Jake is very much a mix, almost a contradiction in some ways. And good point, they have all grown. Jake is, in part, a story of growth and change.

Chapter 48, "The Hand of Fate" is up. Enjoy. :chris:

But but but... we all know a goat would never have anything to do with a cliff (or a cliffhanger), right?

Yes, I know the subject of cliffs is very much off-topic for this forum, but I had to share this link to the world's most spectacular cliffs. Anyway, I just wanted to post this scary stuff here, to remind y'all how lucky you are that there are no cliffs (or cliffhangers!) around here. Oh, and while I'm at it, here's a collection of spectacular sea cliffs. :chris:

ROFL! So you DID have a stratosphere model! I notice you are silent on the Wayne Newton posters issue. ********************************************************* Oh, and before I forget, here's a map of the route Trevor has planned. As you can see, there's a lot of empty ocean once he passes Rodrguez Island.

But what about all those tacky Las Vegas tourist souvenirs (like that Stratosphere model made out of casino chips) and Wayne Newton posters you decorated your office with? Thanks Slug! Before I forget, the title of Chapter 48 is "The Hand of Fate". Okay, it's coming up on that time of year again: the GA Readers Choice Awards, including the King of Cliffhanger Awards. Now, seeing as I'm ineligible for the 2010 voting (And also ineligible due to never using cliffhangers) I am thus completely impartial, and I thought it would be helpful to ponder our options before the campaign begins. There are many potential candidates. All that's required is that they have (or will) posted a chapter or story in the calendar year of 2010, that contains a cliffhanger. Any thoughts on whom to target... er, support?

What's that old saying? Las Vegas is the root of all Evil? Dirk and Jim running certainly won't help their case. And Lol... That's an interesting take on Steve... though for some reason, I was picturing him with a Canadian accent. The inconsistency is just bad wording on my part: Trevor was on a payphone, which was beeping as the call timed out, and he was replying to Jim's question about being able to contact him by saying that he'd be out of cell range once he was a few miles away. That is poorly worded though... I'll see if I can figure a way to fix it. The route... You have it almost completely right on the Mascarine Islands) the only difference is it's over 3300 miles for the leg from Rodreguez to Australia, not 2200. The Mascarine Islands (From west to east they are R

Chapter 47 has been posted. I almost called it a different title, but that would have been too much of a spoiler.

Good point on the horns... And when asked what my favirite drink is, I always reply "Free ones!" Trevor has no worries; he'll have most everything battened down before he sets out. It's a basic of good seamanship; make sure you aren't pummeled by your stuff if the sea gets bad. If one engine goes, that's one advantage of a catamaran; he has two. All you need to do on a cat with one engine is steer away from the "dead" side to compensate for the yaw. It's not efficient, but it works. He's also got the wind for his primary motive force. Well of course, a goat would never have anything to do with a cliff, we all know that... And yep, I started raising hell at an early age. LoL... And yes, my parent's knew about the drinking in shipboard bars, and they were fine with it, so long as I only had one per day. (My parents were from Europe, and so didn't have the American attitude towards alcohol). A typhoon at sea? Yipes. Not fun. I've been in 90mph winds in a ship not much smaller than the Connie (a smallish cruise ship) a couple of hundred miles south of the Falklands (east of Cape Horn) and it was a nightmare, because we had a following sea (they left it too late to turn into it). Did quite a bit of damage astern, too. And offering to get a seasick guy food? You're evil!

Hard cider is very common in the UK, and about like good beer or higher in alcohol content. Some is sweet, but my personal favorite is the cloudy, unfiltered "raw" hard cider served by some pubs in the UK. One of the nicknames for it is "rocket fuel". It comes in several forms, some sweet, others dry (not sweet). I prefer the dry. And Lol... I used to cross the Irish Sea a lot when i was visiting the UK, but in that case... the voyage was bad from the start. The wind was near hurricane force (carrying some rain that stung as it hit), coming right down the channel in Liverpool. The ferry had trouble right from the start: we pulled away from the dock, but the ferry couldn't turn (becuase of the force of the wind on the hull) and ended up being carried up the Mersey channel sideways for about a mile, until a tug came to our rescue and helped turn us. As soon as we were out of the river, it got very rough, and kept getting worse (wind and seas both) and we were heading almost straight into them. The ferry was already taking green water over the bow, and pitching like crazy. I could hear the vehickle tie-down chains clanking, and thuds from below, which scared the hell out of me. (I know what happens when a cargo breaks loose under those conditions... it can knock holes in the hull below the waterline, a great way to sink, and in thos conditions abandoning ship would have been fatal). There were only about two dozen passengers, and mostly they holed up in the lounge or cabins. Me? I sat there, drinking my cider and eating onion and cheese and sausage pasties (I don't get seasick.. at least, I never have yet) ,and the bartender seemed to be getting nervous as hell, cringing every time the bow dipped and we took a wave over it (the impact on the forward superstructure was noisy, and you could feel it). There was also quite a bit of water (not sure if it was rainwater or seawater) in the corridors and lounge, little rivulets on the floor. I was thinking by that point it would end badly for us, but drinking give me something to do. Also, drinking at sea is kind of a tradition for me. My first long sea voyage was at age 11, and in those days there was no drinking age at shipboard bars in international waters. So, at age 11, I was buying myself drinks at the bar (My favorites were snowballs, Singapore slings, and Tequila sunrises) with money I'd won in the casino, playing poker. (It's very easy for a young kid to clean up at poker... no one ever thinks they are bluffing). My family still teases me about that.

The last time I was in San Francisco was a lot of years ago, but I did ride the cable cars (tram cars). I can't remember what they were like for ride though. I've been in ski-gondola cable rides high in the mountains during windstorms, and that gets a bit worrying. I didn't try to stand though (there wasn't much room). I do a lot of 4-wheeling (offroad or rugged trail driving)and that will shake up the passengers and vehicle a lot. Hrmmm... The worst sea I've ever been in was on a small car ferry, crossing the Irish Sea one winter. The winds hit hurricane force, and the seas were massive; we were taking green water over the bow, and things were being thrown around by the motion (even though we were taking the seas head-on, there was still a lot of roll sometimes, to about 30 (guessing here) degrees each side, which is a lot!) Also, when the ferry took a big wave in the teeth, the bow would drop, and then as the wave hit you'd feel shuddering and deceleration as she buried her bow in the wave, and then the roar of the wave bashing the superstructure (I was in the bar, amidships, for most of this). Even some of the crew got seasick, and the journey took three times what was scheduled. It was one heck of a ride. But, there was a plus side; I was much too young to drink, even there (the drinking age is 18), but nobody was carding at the bar, so I had my fill of hard cider (an alcoholic drink, made from apples, which I love).

That's a very good point! I wouldn't have thought of that. I've been on subways a few times, and having to walk around while they are moving, stopping, starting, etc, is kind of similar in a way, especially if they have old, uneven tracks (such as some of the London subways do).

I'm having a great time writing the story about it (Circumnavigation), so much so that I'm going to be taking a short trip on that (or a similar) model of cat, within the next year. At least, I think I am, and I'm sure trying to arrange it. Thanks for letting me know the vids came though; they don't at all on this system, and I haven't had chance to check from my laptop. Totally agreed about fisheye lenses! Yeah,m I noticed that about the boat speed, and what gets me is that isn't even fast for that kind of catamaran... If it was close to 20, then i could understand. As for the song, you're welcome! Always happy to help. Good point on the little motion... I've been at sea in monohulls in the 50 foot range, and in that kind of a sea there would be lots of motion (on the one I was on there sure was!). And BTW, Red is definitely a super yachtsman in my opinion! He's also been absolutely indispensable for giving me expert advice and ideas in the Circumnavigation novel. A Lagoon 55 would be nowhere near as stable as a cruise liner (especially modern ones with active roll-damping) but she's far more stable than any monohull yacht, even one twice her size. However, you'd need sea legs, for sure! Good point. There's even a phenomenon called "land legs" that sailors get.. After a week or more at sea in rough water, it feels downright weird when you first set foot on dry land again, so much so that it can be hard to walk a stright line, and the ground (even concrete) has a "rubbery" feel to you. I've had this effect from large ships in heavy seas, so I'm pretty sure yachtsmen get it from much more moderate seas on long passages. "Land legs" are a definite strange effect, but you get over it within a few hours. Sea legs... hrmm. For me at least, they aren't quite like riding a bicycle, in that you never forget, but I've had them since an early age (I was 9 the first time I spent a few weeks on an ocean liner, an old unstabilized one, so old she was on her final voyage.) I've found that I get my sea legs back fast (within a day). However, I do have trouble on unstablizized boats, because my sea time is mainly on cruise ships (with are roll stabilized, so roll very little and slowly if at all but they do pitch.) On an unstabilized boat, where I'm dealing with natural pitch and roll, it takes me a couple of days to fully get used to the roll aspect. However, my experiences are likely not typical; I have severe inner-ear damage, so my sense of balance is not typical, and probably affects me badly in this regard. I get more of my ballence clues visually than most people do. For example, I have instant sea legs on a badly pitching deck in daylight, but I'd have a lot of trouble inside without a window in the same seas. On the plus side, I don't get motion sick or seasick.

Trevor can't make a direct run to Australia... Well, he could, but it would actually be a lot longer than his planned route. The problem is the wind direction. A direct route from the Seychelles to Austrlia would mean heading directly into the northeast trade winds for most of the way, which would mean he'd have to tack back and forth, effectively about tripling his real distance to travel. He could use his engines, but Atlantis has a max range of around 1500 miles on engines (she does not have big fuel tanks) which wouldn't get him there, and there isn't anywhere for him to stop on a direct run. So, as odd as it sounds, his shortest route is the detour south, then cut east from Rodriguez Island. A direct line from the Seychelles to Perth is about 4,300 miles, and his planned course is around 5000, but the longer course is actually far easier. He's limited to four knots or so due to the danger of big floating logs (Tsunami debris) ,especially in the central Indian ocean. So, as a rough rule of thumb, that's an average of around 100 miles a day. For part of it he'll pick up a knot or a bit more from the eastbound current, giving him an effective speed of five knots, but he's looking at a voyage of at least 45 days, non-stop, and that's without any delays due to weather. His voayage across the Atlantic was faster, because he wasn't limited to slow speeds by the debris issue. You're right, Gonzalez did notice something. And Yep, the idea of taking Atlantis back to Egypt (past pirates!) and then leaving her there, after his experiances in the canal, would not be particularly appealing to Trevor. Ummm, who needs an RV for a camping trip? All he needs is a tent and some gear. Thanks!! Good point; Trevor might fly back if Atlantis was guarded... Could Atlantis be impounded? Yes. The State Department would likely have to request it from the Seychelles government, and they might do so, for a while anyway... It wouldn't be a sure thing though, and would depend on a high degree of cooperation. Dirk did promise Trevor emancipation... but only after Trevor passed the halfway point on his voyage, which he hasn't done yet. (it's in the central Indian Ocean). I had to do a ton of research on the procedural stuff. Florida's system is a bit different procedurally (for example, they don't have District Attorneys, and the Assistant State Attorney role is similar to a Da, but also different). You raise some great points, but the most I can say at this point is we'll find out soon what's up, and in detail, including exactly what the statutes of limitations mentioned are about, and even specific crimes, right down to the statute number. That bomb changed everything, and things will be happening. They can't extradite Trevor, he's not accused of a crime. However, as a US Citizen, they can order him home to testify, but to make that a binding order they'd have to serve him with a written subpoena. But would Trevor know that??? The next chapter, 47, is called: "No good Deed goes Unpunished"

I encountered the following videos, and thought they offered a good "feel" for the Lagoon 55 (same model as Atlantis). The first one shows the layout well (though the 360 camera distorts a bit) and the second one is a Lagoon 55 at sea. Ummm, I have no idea how to embed, and I can't see vids on my home system so I can't twll if I did it right, so I'll try embedding, followed by the direct links at the bottom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bImnAIHGRPo&feature=fvw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bImnAIHGRPo&feature=fvw

Chapter 46 has been posted. Have fun!

Thanks! It was tricky... in third person it would have been easy, but planting it in a story told from Jake's POV, while keeping Jake unaware... That was hard. Thanks very much for mentioning this, because it lets me know it worked. And yep, Chas is a free thinker, in a lot of ways. She's one of my favorite characters. I had a hunch that would come as a shock. LoL. It's not exactly my usual style. Jake is a departure in a lot of ways for me. Corey indeed will hold the ultimate power here. Thanks Mike! Yep, this story is very much a departure for me, in a lot of ways. I've never before attempted a story centered on characters and their relationships. As a result, I was very nervous about it. This story has some (what I hope are) unexpected twists. I absolutely did not want it to be predictable or formulaic. LoL! thanks Conner! Yep... as you say, I'd never go anywhere near a cliff! But a threesome? That's not a cliff, so who knows?