What can you say about a captain who understands that if you cut the wire carrying the data, you will be left with a functioning autopilot – steering by compass course (which is the way we always have it steer anyway?).
What can you say about a captain who, even though he is seriously lacking sleep, finds just the right wire to cut, among zillions of wires coming out of the mast? Which means that not only does he cut the right wire, but he doesn’t cut the wrong wire?
What can you say about a captain who has just saved us from a very tiring week of no sleep and constant steering? (I can tell you, I just spent an hour doing it, and staying awake was going to be a BIG problem, especially if you were lacking sleep.) What can you say?
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU
That’s what I said, with tears of joy. Hand-steering 1000 miles on the bumpy sea, with every swell wanting to take you off course (so you can’t just lock the wheel – you really do have to steer) was not going to be a picnic.
Oh, I am so happy right now. That autopilot is just steering away, as usual. Happy, happy, happy.
We were getting a lot of information about the wind from the masthead unit. But we can make this trip without that. There won’t be a readout the true wind strength and the apparent wind angle. But the water and your face tells you the true wind strength and the apparent wind angle is easy to see, if you look at the top of the mast at the masthead wind vane, which has an arrow pointing into the wind.
Still tricky steering through a squall, but I imagine we can make that work, too. After all, we steered our other boat for 22 years with no digital assistance.
He’s wrapping up the job now, but I am very proud to be the crew of such a captain. Very proud. Kiss, kiss.
As brother Michael would say, “That was close!”
OK. Back to normal. Whew.
Much love,
Philip (oh great captain!) and Kristin (the very appreciative admiral/crew/cook)