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For 39 days, 16 castaways were stranded in Asia.  Every 3 days on the island became a 1-hour show.  The first contestant eliminated pockets $2500.  Each successive eliminated contestant wins more money, through the next-to-last Survivor, who receives $100,000.  The final Survivor wins a million dollars!

Images (C) 2003 CBS, Inc. and Mark Burnett Productions. This page is in no way associated with CBS, Mark Burnett Productions, or the Survivor production.

Argh! Shiver Ye Timbers! Tis a pirate's recapping life for me, as I am covering the Drake tribe. As we all know, the chances of us getting a winner in this group is the same as the chances of Blackbeard winning Survivor. 6 times I have covered Survivor (for either this or other web sites), 6 times I have covered a tribe, and 6 times, the winner has come from the OTHER tribe.

40 beers on a deas Survivor's chest. Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum.

We start with our 16 millionaire wanna-bes on a ship, with Uncle Jeffy telling us that they are all dressed up for a photo shoot, with them thinking that the game starts in 3 days. Unbeknownst to them, 3 days is being moved up by 72 hours, and they are staring now. 'You are going into this game with the clothes on your back - just like you really are shipwrecked.' says uncle Jeffy, who is noticing the Armani suit and the strapless dress.

Jeff wanted the people to have a fighting chance - so he got everyone's running shoes i na bag for them. That's nice. Also being nice is that he is allowing everyone to drop off their personal items in a second bag. Jeff then assigns the teams, and here are the 8 people with no shot at the money (ie. in my tribe). -

Shawn - a strapping young man - into advertising sales.

Christa - a computer programmer with long blond Rapunzel like hair.

Rupert - We have our resident hippie dead-head. Hes wearing a tye-dye t-shirt, with a Santa-like belly and a big bushy beard. Maybe he is Blackbeard incarnate.

Trish - a sales exec - she has short brown hair and looks to be in her early 40's.

Burton - Another young strapping man. He'll be competing with Shawn for Alpha male status.

Michelle - she's a student who has medium brown locks and glasses. Looks like the potential brains of the group.

Jon - A blonde grungy grunge kid wearing a ski cap with a few days worth of growth. He looks like Puck's younger cousin, and based on his quote 'I go by the moniker of Johnny Fairplay - I don't play fair.', he may act like it.

Sabdra - A 30ish hispanic office assistant with a nice dress.

We have more bad news from Jeff - there's nothing there waiting for the tribe. Everyone will get 100 balboas ($100, approzamately) that they can spend on a village, which they can get everything that they can use. They can use money or things to barter with. They must be at the island by sundown - but they have all day to spend. 'I wish you the very best of luck.' says Uncle Jeffy.

Jeff throws everyone's shoes overboard - which is their cue that we have begun. The teams race to save their shoes - and they get a liferaft. 'I never thought swimming with my clothes on woudl be so hard - but it was' says Rupert, who is now all tired and chapped after having the denim pants run against his legs.

Everyone gets to the island - and they all drop their stuff down and race to the village. Rupert is sitting by the raft - and in the dumb-ass move of the episode, the Morgan tribe put their stuff next to the Drake tribes stuff - and Rupert. 'This is definately a pirate advanture - Pirates pillage, pirates steal, pirates take advantage...if they are going to be silly enough to leave their stuff next to me, I'm going to put it in my raft.' and that he does - and gives it to Johnny Fairplay to trade for supplies. 'We are pirates - so we pirated.' Yo ho ho.

We have an advantage - Sandra speaks Spanish, and she can communicate with the natives. She gets some great deals for our tribe, who i sgetting a ton of goodies. Sandra can get a lamp and kerosene - for the services of Trish. Wha? Trish is all ok about it - but that's because she has no clue what's going on and Sandra calmly escorts her out of the situation. What Sandra does get is a barbecue set, chicken, pot and foil included.

We are watching the other tribe go nuts, while our calmness and us getting together gives us the edge. 'We managed to get a ton of stuff for the little money we have.' says Sandra, as they list everything they have, including wine, a machete, tarp - and an extra $40 left over for a boat ride.

We finally get to camp - and we celebrate with a yell. You would expect Burton and Andrew to be at each other's throats trying to be alhpa males - but they are worknig together - as is the rest of the tribe. This unity thing is catchy, as we build a shelter. We get our first rankling - Andrew opens up a coconut and shares it with him, Burton and Michelle - and no one else. Sandra and Christa have noticed - as does Trish. 'They need to be careful - they have already alienated themselves.'

We go out for water - and we realize that there is something that we didn't get - bug repellant. 'Every single mosquito in the world lives (at the watering hole) complains Jon, as the mosquitos probably feel like the food market has come to them. Well, we know what to get the next time we hit the village, don't we?

We spend the night eating some food and celebrating some water. 'We didn't get any soap - but we got booze.' says Burton, who is enjoying the festivities - and is noticing that Jon may be celebrating a bit too much, talking about getting some smoke and honeys. The women find him a little obnoxious. 'He thinks he's cute, but it's already getting old.' says Sandra. I'd like to get a quote from Jon, but there are too many bleeps in the way when he talks.

Here's something else we didn't but - clothes. 'We thought it wasn't necessary at the time' says Michelle. Oops. The women, ever resourceful as they are, create new clothing from the old gear that they have. The pants turn into Armani shorts. , long dresses turn into short dresses, and Rupert's jeans, which are falling apart, turns into a Hawaiian skirt. Jon - 'Half of the dress is a skirt for Michelle, and the other half is a skirt for Blackbeard.' This is not exactly the way that I would expect a pirate to dress...

Or a pirate to sleep. Rupert, who's exhausted, gets some shut-eye - which falls to the disdain of Burton, who goes with Shawn to look for fish. The find a big fish - but Burton, who finally wakes up, thinks that one fish isn't enough. He goes to try to get a fish for everyone - and he keeps getting them while everyone else is resting. He gets to do it - but he is very sunburned and everyone is concerned for the fact that it takes a few hours to recover. 'I want to set it up to that they think 'we can't go on without you.' says Rupert. Maybe, but not at the cost of you getting heat stroke.

Speaking of being exhausted, the first challenge, which is always physical, is sure to leave us exhausted. Here comes the tree mail to anounce the competition -

You've finally arrived, so now it's on
Your first challenge is a test of your brinas and your brawn
Like pirates of old, it's the treasure you thirst,
but no booty will be had if you're voted out first

This challenge is a case of artillery transport - specifically a pirate ship cannon, which you have to move it through obstacles. You have to reassemble the cannon, put it through a rock garden, a mud pit, and then drag it along the beach to the finish. The winning team gets to stay intact for 3 more days - and someone from the losing team walks the plank.

Away we go! We get the early lead - and we have no problems getting it through the fence. IN the middle of the race, one guy on the other team has his shorts come off, and the rest of the guys decide to disrobe and show us their...uh...assets. That doesn't faze us, as we get through the rock garden. That doesn't hurt us - but we get bogged down on the beach and Morgan takes the lead. It looks like we are done for - but Morgan gets their cannon stuck within a few feet of the finish line. That gives us the edge, and we get through the finish line first. We win - and we get the ghastly looking skull through an axe immunity idol, which Rupert lovingly caresses. Fortunately, Rupert doesn't get naked in celebration afterwards. 'When I saw them idiots bouncing around there naked in the mud...and the stickers, it was hilarious.'

So our tribe escapes the first episode intact - which, in my history, means absolutely nothing. Will we get to 2 wins in a row? We shall see next week.