Richard, your new CD arrived the morning I took delivery of ours! Serendipity indeed - and yours is such a winner. Well done, Richard, and the rest of the crew: the process of "borrowing" has already begun, Rika picking up the Sally O.

Our CD (titled "Blow the Man Down! Tall Ships in the Fraser") is by way of being a crowd starter: it's got 27 tracks for a full 72 minutes, and every one of 'em we've all been singing for years - not a new song amongst 'em. But the idea for us was to get non-singers singing, and to do it with a local flavour, since the Tall Ships arrive here tomorrow. The CD booklet is 32 pages long, and that's without the texts to the songs! (mostly a long local history of sail in the Fraser, 1820-1910, with stuff on how the shanties were used).

We'd like to get down to the Bay area for a sing or three, but it's a long and expensive haul. All the best to the Bay shanty singers, including Richard A. and Dick Holdstock. Jon Bartlett