Flotsam & Jetsam

LOOKING IN ALL OF THE WRONG PLACES: The Sunday London Times recently advised single women wanting to “land a wealthy catch” to go to the nearest dive club, where they will find a record number of 25- 35-year-old men with an average income of $50,000. Diver magazine reported that the Times advised taking a trip on a live-aboard, where “lonely men,” they say, outnumber women by almost three-to-one. They say divers are good marriage material because “almost 80 percent have a university education and 15 percent earn more than 100,000 a year.” They quoted a live-aboard instructor who said, “Diving is one of the most erotic experiences you can have outside the bedroom,” because the buddy system requires you “to hold hands.” They added: “When you get onto a real dive boat, the blokes are usually falling over themselves to get to be the woman’s buddy.”

BLACKBEARD'S BOOTY: Archeologists excavating a shipwreck near Beaufort Inlet off North Carolina think they might have found Queen Anne’s Revenge, a 90' vessel that served as a slave ship before it became the flagship of the pirate Blackbeard. Sand apparently covered the wreck for nearly 300 years, but excavation has uncovered several items archaeologists think could be from Blackbeard’s ship, including 18 cannons, a musket brace, a piece of gold-specked lead shot, and a 2-gram gold nugget. Edward Teach, the brigand who became the infamous Blackbeard, survived the 1718 sinking of Revenge only to be captured later and executed on Ocracoke Island.

LA NIÑA PREDICTIONS: According to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the current La Niña will continue through next winter. La Niña triggers global weather changes, including an active Atlantic hurricane season. NOAA scientists anticipate at least 3 major storms this season, so keep this in mind when booking hurricane season bargains in the Caribbean this year.