Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay
Julochka has promised to send a cargo ship to pick me up to bring me to see her in Denmark. I guess we'll bum around Copenhagen first, and then head out to the Galápagos Islands (this all makes sense if you read her post).
Without going into a lot of detail, julochka has the inside track with sailors, so I feel confident that I can get a lift soon.
I stopped by the Pirate Supply Shop at 826 Valencia to get some supplies, in case we run into pirates on the way back. People don't believe me when I say that there's a Pirate Supply Shop in San Francisco, but there is. (Even David Byrne has said that this is "one of the top five pirate stores" he's been to lately.)
Sorry for the blurry photos. You'd have thought I took these photos looking through the viewfinder with my glass eye or that I was holding the camera with my hook instead of my sword hand.
Yes, this is a silly post. I admit it.
But it's Free Friday Eve, so I'm allowed. Har!
pss.: The "Have You Got Scurvy?" sign is just one of the many informative, absurd and hilarious signs you'll see at 826 Valencia. In addition to being a kick ass pirate supply store, 826 Valencia is a well-known writing workshop, dedicated to helping kids aged 6-18 develop their skills as writers. They're also the publisher of the awesome new book of kids' letters to President Obama called Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country.
psss.: Photo of Anne Bonny from wikipedia.
18 comments:
Bonny was a fearsome woman. Sounds like a fun trip but pack well - cargo ships take forever.
True story matey. I was once on a ship and the cook was helicoptered off because he came down with rickets.
I hope that ship goes through some warm waters. It will be hard to fight pirates in the cold. Plus, I am just sick of cold (and quicken, but that is another story!)
WV= fleregab - the stocking up of pirate supplies for a journey to Denmark
speed is totally dependent on what type of cargo. I was thinking containers not supertanker, so never dear the speed...these are some of the fastest on the seas.
love the pirate supply store, tho' piracy is a pretty sore topic these days what with the new breed of pirates (no heroic women in sight) off Somalia.
I think I might have scurvy..do you need ALL the symptoms or just like 8 of 10?
You know what the cure for scurvy is, don't you? Lime juice washed down with jiggers of rum. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, it's the pirates life for me.
Now, if you want to really read about life under sail, read "Two Years Before the Mast." His tale of the Straits of Magellan is hair-raising. It's still pretty dangerous today.
from San Fransisco to Kopenhagen on a boat? sounds like a great idea.
My stomach's rumbling, my feet are itching to go, I am irritable and cranky... it's either because it's lunchtime or I got scruvy
Good to know you have pertinent supplies readily available while you wait for that ship to come in. :) xo
Yeah, we took a slow boat in China once from Dalien to Shanghai. Man was it awful. Like A Scooby Doo boat in real life. We found out later that we had had the pleasure of being on that rusting creepy hulk's last passenger voyage. When we debarked they turned it around and scuttled it in the middle of the China Sea. No Joke! And I think I have scurvy cause I am sufferring 8 out of 10 symptoms too!
Hello there - I've seen you mentioned in quite a few blogs lately so had to come and pay you a visit. I do like your blog and I also like San Francisco very much (although when we visited it we stayed in Sausolito -which I also loved)
I'd be happy just to get to SF. grrrr. cabin fever sux. arghhhh, matey....I need a week away from the scalywags in my brain..... Once I took a ship from Haifa across the Med to Athens and Rhodes, then through the Corinth canal to Venice. Just thinking about it makes me salivate. Oh, to be 26 again! arggggh. I have a Bush-Cheney hangover with overtones of underemployment. arghhhh.
seeing as you posted a blog about being a pirate, I will assume to you are a subject matter expert.
about the list for scurvy. do i need to exhibit or present [if you will] will all 9 symptoms?
i am scared because if I don't need to have all 9, but rather a best out of 9, i am screwed and so is my family!!!
Well if you did do I will bet you would have a helluva story to tell. So your boy is cool with you getting on a ship full of lonely sailors for a long voyage?! :-)
You live in such an interesting city (sigh). I live in a frozen land (bigger sigh). I would not mind being a pirate if it got me away from the ice. : )
Since Adam mentioned it, I have 8 out of 9 symptoms. I have always thought I'm screwed. Now I know it. But at least I know what to blame it on. ; )
I just HAVE to go to that store! Which reminds me...I just made some homemade Bay Rum Aftershave. It's drinkable too. ; D
Cool post! Peg Leg Oil: prevents splinters and keeps the wood borers away.
I think I am getting confused between scurvy and pms. I suppose chocolate-dipped strawberries are in order either way.
Helene Hanff (one of my favorite authors) wrote Apple of my Eye, which is at once a love letter to her city and a completely unique tour guide. When I read this post, my first thought was, "How does she find these places?" My second thought was, "She's got to write the SF version of Apple of my Eye.
As a fellow San Francisco, I can testify there is, indeed, a pirate supply shop. In fact, I once bought an eye-patch there as an emergency Halloween fix.
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