I’ll admit that I came to the party late on this one. Having been in the Navy in my youth and living in Florida for 98% of my adult life, one would think that I would have latched on to this much earlier. I was preoccupied with my personal life while in the Navy, which is never a good thing, and did not allow myself to appreciate the heritage and history of the seafarer. Too bad for me.

I remained oblivious to the obvious indulgence of Pirates of the Caribbean, that is, until I happened to realize one day that I liked Johnny Depp in a lot of movies and said to my wife “I should get that Pirates of the Caribbean movie", to which she stated that we already owned the first two (the third installment was coming out in about a month at that time). Doh! So I watched them both and was amazed at how much I liked them and was instantly a little saddened that I had been so stubborn as to have ignored them for so long.

Meanwhile, as I grew older. not old, just older, lately I’ve been realizing that I’ve spent the bulk of my life trying to arrive somewhere, and I’m still not sure where that somewhere is, but my mind has begun to awaken to the idea of living for now rather than waiting for a destination to become clear. Yea, I know, I’m a slow learner.

So, a few years ago I happened to stumble across a web site that lists wooden boats that are available for free as a rescue mission to prevent them from being lost to salvage yards. Well, being the keen penny-pincher that I am, the thought of a free boat was enough to get my mind on a nautical track. The more I looked at the boats the more I could see myself enjoying them. At first I mainly looked at the power boats since, realizing that I had a lot to learn about boating, steering and navigation would be plenty without needing to also worry about sails. After watching the aforementioned Pirates movies and also picking up a copy of ‘Master and Commander’, which is now a top favorite of mine, I have become enamored with the sail powered vessels (though I still need to learn how to operate them).

What does this have to do with pirates? Having followed this path, I find it enjoyable to seek out the culture that is available to me and while the music in Master & Commander is nice, the pirate tunes (here, here, here, and here) are much more entertaining and if your planning on attending a ship event, as I had the opportunity to do so recently, you can’t go wrong by seeking out the pirate group among them for a good time. While at the event I discovered pirate music and even a pirate magazine. Now I spend time looking for events around the state that I can attend.

I really wanted to see what other treasures I had missed at the cinema related to pirates, so I was fortunate enough to find this fairly thorough guide to every pirate movie ever made. I also found a few places online that I could watch some of them (Captain Kidd and Long John Silver via ClassicCinemaOnline.com).

I have also begun to read the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian (from which the Master and Commander movie was made) and plan to read others such as Moby Dick, the Honor series, and Edgar Allen Poe’s Narrative of A. Gordon Pym

So what, you may ask, does this have to with anything? Nothing really, other than it interests me and I find it all entertaining and hope that you, if you are not already familiar with pirate society, may also like to peek in on a fun culture.