This book is dedicated,                                                                                                        
with admiration and respect                            
to my good friend, Dr John Pitman,               
who suggested the idea                                   
for writing a book about a bell buoy.             
John - i think you had something else in mind
entirely, but here it is.                                       
And also with love                                           
to Nina,  Nevaeh and  Julian James                 
born this year of our Lord, 2011,                      
my potential future readers,                              
who, no doubt, have serious potential             
of their own,                                                    
but may be old enough to read this                   
at about the same time as it's likely                           
to be published, in 2017 or so.