
This is a cutlass NOT a scimitar.
ARRGH!
There are always three ways; your way, their way, MY WAY. Things will go a lot easier for you if we just do it my way in the first place.
This was a few years ago, just after 911. A Canadian warship burst in calling for a ship to identify itself. The Canadian crewperson, a young woman , proceeded with a litany of questions for the ship which the radio person answered in strange, almost too perfect, English, beginning each transmission with a nervous ?yes yes??
The the ship was a 600 ton oil-tanker due into New York in two days, registry port of Kingston, Jamaica. After the questions, the Canadian warship signaled its intention to board the vessel and asked the tanker to slow to 8 knots. No answer and dead air for a couple of minutes. The young woman on the Candian warship again announced its intention to board and requested the ship slow to 8 knots, through a rope ladder over the starboard side, have papers ready, and have all crew identification ready. The tanker finally replied and the man with the automated English voice said that the ship would not slow down and would not comly. He claimed they had to make their June 20 delivery date in New York and since they had boarded recently, they didn't need to be boarded again. Silence.
Once again the young female navy voice requested that the oil tanker slow to 8 knots and again was met with silence. After a couple more times, the automated voice from the tanker asked what authority the Canadian warship had to board? The warship responded citing a US Canadian Treaty, this time with a much sterner more mature female voice. After another request was met with silence, the stern female declared that if the tanker did not comply, the warship would be forced to file 50 mm warning shots across its bow, but hoped it would not come to that. More silence.
This time the captain of the warship made the request. This time, another, more frantic voice with a noticeable accent answered from the tanker stating that the ship would not comply. After a lot of back and forth, the warship captain started a 2 minute countdown that ended in 10-9-8-7....3-2-1 fire!. Silence.
This time the stern woman's voice made the boarding request and again was met with silence. This time she indicated that the warship would fire 500 yards across the bow. "Clear your decks of all personnel," she said. This time, as the countdown progressed, the mic was left keyed and we could plainly hear the sounds of guns over the radio.
The tanker quickly broke radio silence. They yelled that they were on the phone with their agent in London and that they would lodge a complaint with the International Shipping Organization. They also told the warship to shoot all they wanted, as they were videotaping this for CNN.
The warship responded that it would start firing over top of the tanker if it didn't slow to 8 knots and prepare to be boarded. "Clear your personnel from your top decks." This prompted a similar response from the tanker who now claimed that they had been boarded four times in the last three days and they would not slow down.
As the warship started its countdown, the tanker quickly interrupted and claimed it was slowing to 8 knots, not because it was about to comply, but because it was having "engineering problems." At this point, however, the transmission was starting to fade and get garbled with static and within minutes we lost the transmission.
This long-winded account comes from my log at the time.

Whew! I am beat! And I'm as beet red as a greek boy can get, too. Note to self: Sunscreen washes off in the water.
Just thought I would quickly post on the new (to me) sailboat and Jeep Diesel Liberty combo.
First the Jeep pulls stronger than my suburban. I have towed SlowRide with both and the Jeep accelerates better and pulls hills LOTS better. Go figure. However, the Jeep just doesn't have a long enough wheelbase for this big a boat. Past 60MPH the boat starts swaying. NOT good. So I drive 56MPH to the lake and back with no drama.
Launching was a bitch. Not because of any problem with floating the boat, starting the motor or pulling up and down the ramp though. The boat stuck to the trailer.
I backed down the ramp until the water was up to my rear axle. I figure that'll do. Can't get the boat off. Joe "the Drill" is in the boat with the motor runnin' trying to back it off when I notice the trailer drifting to the side.
"Joe, the trailer's floatin'.", says I. "All the straps are off, I don't know why it would.", says he.
So, I pushed the trailer back onto the ramp, pulled forward (make diesel sounds now) and gave the trailer a once over. That's when we figured out the boat was actually STUCK to the trailer. It seems the paint Joe "the drill" used on the bottom made the hull adhere to the boards on the trailer.
I backed it down and stood on the trailer fender bouncing. Pop! other side, Pop!
Free at last, I put the Jeep in a parking spot and we motored to the middle of the lake to begin sailing.
More to come.
Goodnight!

There's my girls hamming it up as usual while I get the boat ready to splash for the first time in my posession. I'm headed out this morning so wish me luck; I'm gettin' splashed for the first time, too. Also, will be towing with the deisel Liberty - that should be interesting, too.
I can hear the turbo spooling up now..... Gotta go!

This is not my boat, but it is the same make and model. Ya' gotta give he guy credit for successfully compensating for a yellow hull.
I always wanted to be a pirate....

Res got a new .45 and was kind enough to send this in depth review. Please, don't drool on my blog. Here is this season's "must have" for the well dressed man-about-town
I just joined the local IDPA league so I could spend lots of time breakingbr />
it in. We shot for about two hours tonight. I went through about 200
rounds. One failure to feed. I suspect it was my fault, I was rushing for
time and changed positions, so I may have limp wrist'd it. Bad thing is
with a 23lb spring when this baby jams it jams hard. I should have racked
it harder to clear it. I'll remember that if there is a next time. No
other problems at all, other than I will need some time to get used to a
shorter barrel. The sight picture is slightly different and I was trying to
hit high on the steal targets because some of them were falling a little
hard.
As a carry gun this has it all! Its 1/4in shorter than anybody else's
commander style gun, the barrel is 4in. It is a bull style barrel that
doesn't require a bushing. IT IS TIGHT! Fit and finish is near perfect.
The gun is deburred and rounded in the shop before they finish it. Front
strap checkering is 30 lpi and the underside of the trigger guard is
checkered too. Using an OWB holster tonight, the gun jumped to my hand and
came up in a perfect solid grip every time.
Control ability is great, the gun may be the lightest in its class but its'
far from unmanageable. The biggest challenge for me is learning the point
of aim on it and getting the sight picture right. I'm so used to a 5in gun
that it seems "wrong" but I think in a week or two' I'll be completely over
that.
Have you seen these:
http://www.gunnersalley.com/product/COMPTACCTAC
I'm thinking of doing something like this for my new carry holster. Its
great to carry and I think I'm going to be real pleased with it.<

For those who don't know, "the Doctor" is Valentino Rossi, the fastest man alive. He is the reigning champion of Moto GP motorcycle racing. He's also a spindly, ubergeek who is at least as goofy lookin' as the class nerd you remember from shool days.
As can be seen in the drawing my youngest daughter has a crush on him. She tore out a magazine ad featuring him, took it to school and told her friends she was "in love". They told her he wasn't "cute".
Her reply, "No, but he's fast and he wins races."
I haven't figured out just what to do here...... I guess I don't have to beat him publicly unless he shows up on my doorstep, but past that I am at a loss.