� Dogwatch 1 Dogwatch 2 Dogwatch 3 Dogwatch 4 Dogwatch 6

�

I saw Stanley Kubrick's "2001, A Space Odyssey" long before I ever became a sailor. I thought it was a brilliant film, beautiful, horrific, and prophetic. But it was not until I took up the sailors' art that I truly realized the insight of that wonderful piece of work.

The idea of technology is nothing new to science fiction. For sailors, it is an everyday fact. The autohelm on my boat will operate flawlessly for hours at a time. Then, suddenly, like a distracted puppy it darts to port, no doubt in purcuit of something shiny on the horizon. And nothing short of an ax can it give up control. Navigational instruments give wrong information, sheaves jam, ground tackle fouls, weather helm for no apparent reason, these damn boats are alive I tell you!

Like the pod in 2001, I once had a dink come after me with no one aboard. The oars beat the water coming ever closer. The bastard was after me! The only thing for it was to somehow get back aboard the boat and one by one, disconnect the DC circuits, as my boat begged me for another chance.

Tracy Wright