We were cruising along after having visited Okracoke Island in North Carolina (Blackbeard's home port) on autopilot when our boat guest came up on deck and sat in the Navigator's chair. I soon noticed shadows marching across the inside of the wheelhouse. When I glanced at the wake it had a nice gentle curve to it.
After a flash of "Oh, no, the autopilot has a problem!" I noticed her fancy water container about a foot from the autopilot compass mounted on the other side of the bulkhead. Seems her water jug had a magnetic in it "for healthy, ionized water". We always get a chuckle remembering the story of her mutinous water jug. We also had a compass hang when hand steering many years ago. It was a nice big English steel boat compass. The compass guy drained it and gave me the pivot needle but he could not sharpen it. Neither could Jan's master clock maker "Franz" (or something like that). I chucked it up in my drill press and while it was spinning touched it very gently with a diamond bit spinning in a Dremel tool. It worked great. Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek 30 07.695N 081 38.484W And yes, I do occasionally take out the magnet, prop myself in the doorway near the steering compass and get novice sailors to steer circles in open water, trying to 'catch' the compass. Hey I'm an old man, what other fun do I have? Peter greetings from Sardinia-
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