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Aglaia - Dave the Autopilot



Good afternoon everyone, today whilst everyone is working hard or sound asleep between watches I thought I would introduce myself, I'm Dave, Aglaia's autopilot.

Now, I've been feeling a little under appreciated over the first half of the crossing, working tirelessly to keep the boat on course and being dismissed as soon as the helming conditions look 'fun'. Yesterday I decided enough was enough and it was time everyone aboard realized just how much work I really do.

Starting yesterday afternoon I went on full time strike, first result was regular visitor coming to see me in the lazertte at the back of the boat, all my connections were cleaned, setting checked, temperature taken, all in all I started feeling a bit of love so put in an hours work as a thank you.

Talking with Berg the plotter who gets to see weather updates twice a day I discovered that it looked like an interesting night of calms, squalls and rain so decided it was a great night to see if the skipper was still capable of a night of hand steering (he is getting rather old). So promptly at midnight I disengaged and have refused to get back to work again since.

This lead to the skipper standing at the wheel in rain, confused seas, squally winds for the whole night muttering to himself about wind shifts, which seam in his waterproof was leaking and wanting to just get some sleep. I got the feeling he might have forgotten just how hard nights at the wheel can be in the middle of the Atlantic. Although much to my dismay when I thought he was close to breaking the sun started to rise and brought with it steady sailing conditions, the most stunning views and calmer seas. Last I saw he ended up handing over to the first mate and heading to bed with a smile.

More visitors today poking me and resetting things, who knows when I'll decide it's time to get back to work but thinking after a rum punch in the Caribbean as they seem capable and even enjoying my break for service.

1000 miles until rum punch now according to Berg so we'll see what happens.

Oh and the skipper is swigging cough medication which might be the cause of some of the smiles.....

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