Navigation is becoming like aviation; full of rules, regulations, and electronic monitoring. Although I have always been fascinated by airplanes, I never got into flying because I felt that there was always someone looking over your shoulder. From the moment an airplane starts to roll on the runway, she is plugged into The System. You are trained, licensed, and tested constantly, and can go nowhere without filing a flight plan. I can certainly see the need for this, simple public safety if nothing else, but I think I would have preferred the old barnstorming days. Like the old biplanes, sailboats are analog machines, immersed in and a part of their environment. Their life comes from the touch of wind on cloth, and their connection to their pilots is through a human hand grasping a stick.

What is the old Odyssey Explorer up to these days? Espionage? Oil Exploration? Ostensibly, her mission is deep water salvage. But I'm not surprised her master would prefer a little privacy.