The "Stuck Inside Literary Award": At Sea with Patrick O'Brian

. . . A few TSW readers - notably Sharon Morris and Lavern West - have traveled to New Hampshire to obtain one of Pornchai's vessels. Lavern has a magnificent tall ship displayed in her living room window in Cincinnati with some beautiful handcrafted stained glass in the window just above it. She sent a photo which Pornchai proudly added to the collection on his cell wall. One day, a guard came into this cell and was looking intently at the photos of Pornchai's beautiful ships. When he saw the one in Lavern's window, he said "Wow! That's just incredible." Pornchai smiled and sat up straight waiting for the usual comments about his carving skill. Then the guard said, "That's some of the nicest stained glass I've seen!" I just about hurt my ribs laughing. Pornchai told me that on his next ship, he's adding a plank for me to walk. . . .