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Published: January 19th 2011
Pirates! Pirates! The Pirates are coming!!!! Sail-Ho!!! (As the sinister black flag of a pirate ship has been spotted...)
These are the fearful cries we could imagine were yelped back in the days where pillaging and plundering the goods of others was common practice among sailing thieves of that period.
Dressed in colourful cloths, stitched with leathers and lace, adorned by headpieces as individual as the thieves they decorated and armed to the hilt with sharp cutlass swords, impressive flintlock pistols and muskets and knives of all sorts, these “Merchant Marines” gone bad commanded the fear and respect of all those they crossed.
A most colourful history indeed...
This summer, we spend 5 months in St-Augustine Florida, a historic town erected in the mid 1500’s with a vast history of discovery and piracy.
This pearl of a city of incredible architecture and character offers to those who will accept it, visual grounds for the history of the discovery of the new land as well as a real feel for how life was in the renaissance times of piracy. The city was pillaged many times and burned down 3 times by pirates.
In these modern times,
although we cannot condone the acts of piracy in the past, we tend to embrace it as a part in time the formed our societies of today. This being said, a celebration of this history is held each year in St-Augustine.
In mid-November, we attended a 3 day celebration with hundreds of other 20th century pirates, all dressed in full period garb (that’s pirate attire for you scallywags..) and shared many a story and song while savouring libations (that’s grog or rum) with our fellow privateers, buccaneers, wenches and swashbucklers..
It all starts on the Friday evening with a “Pirate Pub Crawl” which calls all participants to the streets of downtown St-Augustine to tour 5 of the many vivid pubs and bars of the city, for drinks, talks, dancing and general merriness that us fools in character can enjoy.
The following day is filled from morning till the wee hours of the next with battle re-enactments, pirate parades including floats and walking foe of all kinds, a pirate ship battle and a pirate dinner extraordinaire with great renaissance bands and dancing galore.
The last of the three days is a little hard to walk strait and without
a headache, but for those that can pull it together, there is a pirate judicial court held in the morning that allows judge and jury to sentence all “mis-behavin” that unfolded during the previous 2 days. It’s really funny (although it’s hard to laugh when you feel your heart in your brain)..
The whole experience leaves you wanting more and revelling about all the cool people you met and how, seemingly normal folk as yourselves can transform themselves into the most ferocious, elegant and sometimes very funny pirates! You can’t help but adopt the role you have given yourself!
We will most definitely be at the Pirate Gathering this year and we encourage ALL to include this as part of their “bucket list”. Please let us know if you would like to join us in St-Augustine for a weekend of fun and we’ll do our best to accommodate you during your stay. If we have to... we will commandeer another vessels cabins and local hotel rooms to ensure all of our new pirate friends can attend. Start prepping your garb now!!!
If you join our crew, we will spare you from walking the plank!! It not... Dead
men tell no tales!!!
If you can’t make it to St-Augustine this summer, please think about joining us this winter.
The multitude of sheltered waterways formed by the rugged coastlines of the islands and cays of the Caribbean provided the perfect lairs for the pirates from which to mount surprise attacks on their unsuspecting victims. Piracy started in the Bahamas and it is a rich and unspoiled playground for our travels.
Please come and help us find some of the hidden treasures left behind and play in and on the grounds of our ancestor privateers.. We hold Pirate Dinner Parties weekly (full garb) on the quarterdeck of our beloved WeBeSailing.
A Pirate Adventure awaits you my friends....
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Yves
non-member comment
WOW!!!
Annie en pirate IMPRESSIONNANT!!!