C James

Blondwriter! That's a horrendous utter falsification of my style! There are truly glaring differences here! Firstly, I'd have used an EM dash "-" to interject "Formerly known as Burma", rather than a comma. Secondly, I'd never, ever, list eight point four meters per second as the detonation speed of C4! You got the speed on feet per second pretty close, but you need to move the decimal place on the meters per second. And, of course, I would never have any of my characters go anywhere near an escarpment! Seriously, thanks Bondwriter, that made me laugh!

That black cat pretty much ignored me at first, then it trotted right up to me, rubbed against my ankles, and took off running, just like it did to Trevor. Trevor has only met Bridget once, and in that meeting she pushed him to give up his boat, plus, as you mention, she does to a degree assume he doesn't know what he's doing, so he's a bit unsure of her. She also has a very formal manner, which can be off-putting. It took Lisa a while to warm up to Bridget, but in Lisa's case Bridget came into her life when Lisa was missing both Trevor and Joel. Trevor isn't a misogynist; Lisa is one of his two best friends, and he was extremely close to Julie. Don't worry, Trevor will probably become more accepting and trusting of Bridget over time. Atlantis carries four propane tanks: Two in the storage rack (under a seat in the cockpit) and one each in the galley and under the barbecue. The ones from the cockpit storage are used when one of the other two runs out. That's plenty of propane, and Trevor, as we've seen, does not cook much, except in the microwave. This is good news; it means that having a bomb aboard, replacing one of his reserve tanks, wouldn't result in him having to eat cold food. Have fun on your trip!! Cliffhangers? What is it with frogs and cliffhangers... are frogs cliffhanger-obsessed? I think what we have here is a subspecies of the cliff chirping frog: a cliffhanger chirping frog!!

She's 14... I don't know what route she's planning, but I sure as heck hope she's going to stay out of the southern ocean! Personally, I think 14 is too young. She was stopped by a court over a year ago, at barely age 13, when she was about to sail. At this rate, we'll see babies with sales rigged to their bassinets heading out to circumnavigate within a few years. Circumnavigation can be dangerous... The fatality rate is only about one to two percent, but the odds go way up for the inexperienced. There's a world of difference between coastal sailing and open ocean passages.

Or a faster one.

Wildone! And James.. maybe turning over the GSA to goats would be an improvement...

Very likely... We've recently seen a famous anti-gay activist caught with a rentboy... and it does seem that a huge amount of radical anti-gays end up like that. I hereby predict that one day, one of these anti-gay zealots will, against all odds, turn out to be... straight. :wacko:

Sorry, but I had to change chapter 36 of Circumnavigation, post-publication, due to a goof on my part. The updated chapter is now on the site. The original paragraph was,

OOPS! Thanks for the heads up; the typo is now fixed, and reads "learn". And yep, Bridget is insistent... but I'm sure she means well.

I thought this might be of interest... That kayaker can probably see the shark in that clear water, so this IMHO could be considered a very tense moment!

I don't think it was a deliberate attack. Past whale attacks on yachts have been mainly ramming the keel repeatedly until the yacht sinks. Hey now.... The rules of navigation are very clear; the vessel being overtaken has the right of way! The whale, as the faster of the two, was clearly at fault even if there was no criminal intent. So, we have a definite case of civil liability, and perhaps a criminal charge of reckless endangerment as well. Oh, and let's nor forget hit-and-run...

I think they lost their church building a while ago... They're basically just one family of nasty lunatics. And BTW, their activities aren't just anti-gay... they've protested against holocaust memorials too. One group I am very fond of is a bunch of bikers, the Patriot Guard Riders http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Guard_Riders Westboro baptist has stayed away from funerals, lately. My favorite was the group chanting "What do we want? Gay Sex! When do we want it? NOW!". I heard from someone who was there that quite a few of the chanters were actually straight... Ridicule is a very effective weapon, and Westboro Baptist is a group eminently in need of ridicule.

http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/149785 Send in the goats!

This has got to be the funniest thing I've seen in a long time... http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/22/super-heroes-vs-the-westboro-baptist-church/ It's great to see Westbro Baptist zinged like this. I'll bet they won't darken that particular doorway anytime soon!

I dunno.... Look at the vid; the whale was clearly approachi9ng the yacht, and was certainly far faster. IMHO, it's the whale who should be charged with breaking the law. Trevor and a.... whale?

I thought this video was very interesting... http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6704191n Whale attacks on yachts do happen. There have been several sunk, though it's more common for the whale to ram the keel and sink the boat. For reasons unknown, the two areas where this is most common are the Indian Ocean (such as in this case off South Africa) and in the Pacific near the Galapagos. Here's the URL for the video, in case my embed didn't work. (I can't see videos on this system, so I can't check) http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6704191n

Understate? Me? And don't let the frog corrupt you! You know I'd never have anything to do with a cliff, right?

That was very profound... I especially liked your comment at the end.

Jake would have trouble if he came out... Brett is fine with Jake and Corey being friends, but that's because he thinks Jake is straight. That could be a recipe for disaster. And yep, Jake has squirreled away a lot of his loot. A prime motive for his criminal enterprise was to build up enough cash so that he could survive his parents tossing him out on his 18th birthday. Jake's home life is not good, and has played a role in making him who he is. We do find out more about Jake's homelife and background shortly. Jake is lucky the mouse didn't eat the money, too. LoL. Jake seems to be settling down nicely now he's out of his old "business", doesn't he? He settling into the law abiding life very well, so smooth sailing ahead... it's not like we'll be having any chapters named "Hell on Wheels" or anything... BTW, chapter ten is entitled "Hell on Wheels."

LoL! And a few photos, too. I took all but one of those myself. Good point on the haggling... My thinking was that they are inexperienced at it, so they did okay but not awesome. I thought it would be unrealistic if they'd done overly well. Still, that's a great price for that kind of ring. The logs and debris in the Indian Ocean are an issue. Even at just four knots, hitting a massive log could do some damage. I don't see why everyone is so against Bridget.... all she's trying to do, at considerable effort and expense, is send Trevor a going-away present.

Gonzalez was warning Jim that he'd "outed" Jim and Dirk. Gonzales had been putting out what he thought was false info to trap the leak in his department, and had discovered, via Jim's cases on behalf of gay clients, that Jim is gay. (Jim is indeed gay: he was careful to tell only the truth, just as he was when he said that Dirk is not gay.). Gonzalez was also digging regarding whether Dirk is gay, due to it playing to motive for murder. Gonzalez has eased off the investigation into Dirk, focusing instead on Bridget. However, as we see with Jim, that poses grave danger for Dirk. We'll be finding out more soon. Jim is a lawyer, and (especially when lawyering, as we see him here) tends to talk like a lawyer. Jim argued Gonzalez around quite a bit before admitting that he was gay (A fact he's never made any secret of). Jim's comeback of "I'm a lawyer, since when do I need a reason to argue?" sums it up rather well. Good call! Jim, as a courtroom lawyer, is very adept at verbal fencing. Gonzalez, like most in his job, has little direct dealings with lawyers (they leave that up to their department's own lawyers in the prosecutor's office). So, Gonzalez is the one a bit out of his depth here. Truth and honesty (that's why the chapter has that title) are not necessarily the same thing; one can lie with the truth, by using truth to mislead and deceive. As for Dirk, we did learn something. We know he's not gay. We also know that Jim is gay, and Dirk knows. Dirk has certainly shown no signs of having issues with that, so Dirk is not the homophobe that Trevor, Joel, and Lisa think.

:blink: Graeme! I've never even written horror! Er, okay, one short story, but other than that, nothing! Isn't it a known fact that my stores are regarded as being all sweetness and light, where nothing bad ever happens? :blink: Indeed he was... He was also the one who popularized Cuthulu, the essence of evil, as I recall. He was known for cliffhangers and also tension. And that, of course, proves that I cannot have anything in common with H.P. Lovecraft. BTW, chapter 35 of Circumnavigation, "The Art of the Deal", gives a result of David Foster Wallace. The analyzer we're talking about is here.

I'm beginning to think this is psudo random (it repeats its results for a given piece of text but the actual product seems thematically inconsistent. Going through the prologue for my current story section by section, I get, in order; Robert Louis Stevenson H.P. Lovecraft Dan Brown H.P Lovecraft Stephen King James Joyce H.G. Wells H.P. Lovecraft The first chapter gives me P. G. Wodehouse, though the next few give me Dan Brown. The prologue for another of my stories came back with Isac Asimov, and the first chapter Raymond Chandler In fairness, I do vary style to suit the situation, but I think these results are rather inaccurate, but good for a smile. Thanks Viv. .

In the interest of being able to make fun of your timekeeping ability, I have just ensured that you are very wrong! (how? By uploading the chapter a bit early!) Some things will be revealed in full in the near term, others a bit later. BTW, isn't Bridget a thoughtful, considerate person? She wants to send Trevor a little going-away present. (isn't that sweet of her?). Poor, misunderstood Bridget.

Totally agreed! All I meant when I said Graeme was right was that Trevor being Rachel and Dirk's son does not preclude adoption. But yes, things do seem to point to Australia, and not only is Graeme in Australia, but he admits it!!!! Yep, I think he may very well be our prime suspect!! There's nothing in the narration that addresses Dirk's sexuality, not until chapter 34.

Graeme is absolutely right.