WOW!!!! Thanksgiving is very very near. That means Christmas and New Years and then we do it all over again. Faster and Faster every year we go through all the events, very scary, I talk like an old person to the kids these days. You wont believe how fast life goes, blah blah blah, they listen to me as well as I listened when I was a kid. So the goes the circle of life. I am writing you from an Internet cafe in Fajardo Puerto Rico. Ironically Fajardo is famous for having the movie "Captain Ron" filmed here. I had a good friend tell me they saw the movie and it reminded them of me. I saw the movie the other day and was sad to learn that I was the bumbling character played by Martin Short, I so wanted to be the swashbuckling Captain Ron, but alas, that day willl have to wait. Till then I will have my nose to the grindstone preparing the Paradiso for the next year of Charter. Martinek Manufacturing is providing international support for the refit and UPS is shipping the parts as I need them. It has worked out well. I FAX the design, Martinek Mfg fabricates and ships to the Puerto Del Rey Marina and we install.

Joke of the Month -

Cannon Balls In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But if this plate was made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" (And all this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you?)