Since Jes enjoyed rafting, I thought maybe she'd like an ocean kayak for her bday. We did a sunset paddle before going to see Isle of Dogs.


This, of course, meant rigging a pulley system in the garage to easily store and load the vessel which she christened Gamora.




I did some bday photos for Lil'B down at the Cove. Since my hotshoe connection is loose I pretty much have to use the sync cable. It's not so bad since off-camera flash is better (except in bouncing scenarios). But after the session I realized I really needed to pull the trigger on a flash bracket.


Without much in the way of research, I ordered the Vello Quickdraw. At $20, it's a pretty solid ROI as photography equipment goes.


Its first live action was shooting Lil'H and family up in Poway. It was useful and convenient with the exception of the sync cable always getting in the way. The other are for improvement was the shadows created by a straight-on flash shot.



Thankfully the bracket is highly adjustable. So by turning the joint part around I can get more flash angle.


And without a flash, it just folds over the top of the camera. I'm pretty happy to add it to the default camera setup. Having a substantial left grip is nice and the only downside is the knob on the bottom that prevents setting the camera down on its bottom side.


J and I bagged our first elder dragon.



And the Gentleman's Beer Explorer Society finished Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime.



On the virtual seas, we haven't gotten in nearly enough sessions to bump against the content wall that everyone's complaining about. We're getting slowly more competent at pvp.


For the last adventure we tried the skull fort for the first time.


Basically you follow the big skull in the sky until you get to an island with some serious skeletons.


It took us awhile to get there, we could see there were other players already raiding.


We weren't sure whether to engage or try to ignore them and go for the treasure. Kiet made the decision for us, fire away!


We boarded them but they put powder kegs in the water and got us back.


Still, we got a few men into the fort and battled some of the dead.


We returned to find the successful plunderers running from another ship.


We drew alongside the pursuer, not sure whether to join them or attack them.


It was a little of both.


Both superior seamanship and antagonistic pursuers meant the treasure ship made it to the outpost with a little time to spare.


We swung around the island and sank their ship after they'd turned in the big chest. We picked up some leftover spices.