Any one can win a competition. The post man has just delivered a parcel to me with the Snakehead picture on the front. I am now bouncing here, after winning an Alex Rider t-shirt and poster.

Only a couple of days left. At the moment we have four different pirates entering our competition, (Cabin Girl please contact me again). The competition is for an inscribed and signed copy of Blood Captain (The ride is far from over!). If that does not tickle your fancy you can trade it for an inscribed and signed copy of Dead Deep (Beware the fishtails!) or a postcard of Lorcan Furey.

The term Pirate was first used about when Jesus was born by the Greeks. It means 'attacker' and is used to describe any sailor who attacks ships or raids the coast.

From Notorious Black Bart's Daughter
Message: Hello, I had come across you on the Nocturn website and am very impress of your work on the site. I'd love to be one of the crew!! I havent decided on a name yet but ill let you know when i have. ... Your website is fab and i'll contact soon Ta ta!!

Since then she has come up with a name and several other pieces for this site.

I have now finished going through both the blogs Justin Somper wrote and books 1 and 1½. Then I looked at how many items there are on the left hand side and decided to rationalise them. So things like the Favourite Characters page have moved to under Characters.

On The Blue Peter Blog Justin Somper wrote "I thought that it made sense to have pirates in the future because, with global warming and sea-level rise, there would be a lot more ocean for them to roam around and whoever controlled those vast oceans would be very powerful indeed!"

I was watching a programme yesterday on volcanos. Volcanos release molten rock and the tectonic plates shifting into one another cause mountains. These are the only things stopping the rain eroding the land and causing the world to be covered by oceans.

If global warming affects volcanos or the tectonic plates shifting then we may see an increase in pirate activities.

I would like to introduce our latest recruit, Sailor Black Anne Read who wrote:
"I cant wait to read the next book, The Tide of terror."
The rest of her email can be read under two new pages - Favourites and Film or TV.

I hope you like the new square pictures I have just added. You may have noticed several are also buttons with links to other pages.

A Cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy (in the sense of low-ranking employee, not always a minor) who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship, especially running errands for the captain.

From "Going to sea as a cabin boy". What were your duties aboard?
Well, looking after the quartermasters, getting their food, clean their cabin out and do all sorts of things, and we used to have to go up on the bridge, you know, and quartermaster was off duty he used to teach us boys knots and splices and how to steer the ship and box the compass and all that sort of business, which was all new to me.  I knew everything by the time I got back.

Can you remember how much a cabin boy got paid then?
Yes, £1 a month.  That's all we got paid.  So that wasn't much was it?  (Laughs)  After three months.

Welcome to the Vampirate fans from Brazil and Israel. Also a thank you to those from the Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Tonga, United Kingdom and of course the United States (Commercial, Educational and at home) who have visited us in the past.

From our newest member of the crew - Cabin Girl
"I love the books and the the latest, Blood Captain, has left me crying out for more news about the twins and their adventures!"

For those of you who are fans of Anthony Horowitz, I thought you might be interested in a competition I have just found. The chance to have a character named after you in his next book. See http://www.alexrider.com/tesco/ for more information.

The gunner was one of five standing officers on board ship, the others were the boatswain, purser, carpenter and cook. The gunner was responsible for the ship's  guns and  ammunition. Gunners were assisted by, and usually recruited from, gunners' mates, and their subordinates also included the armourer, the yeoman of the powder room, and one quarter gunner, or seaman layer, for each group of four great guns.

Updates have been put on hold as the latest Alex Rider novel has just been handed to me by the postman. Back in under a week, I hope. But that should not stop you sending in entries to the competition or comments to the website, I still will check my emails once a day.

Welcome to the Vampirate fans from Austria, Argentina, Poland, Slovak Republic and Netherlands. Also a thank you to those from the Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Romania, Sweden, Tonga, United Kingdom and of course the United States (Commercial, Educational and at home) who have visited us in the past. I am still sorry to say the frappr map is still not working and I am thinking of loosing it.