We often stop and drop an anchor off the shores of St James City Florid, but rarely do we spend any time there. We decided to burn a day here today. The winds were not favorable for us to travel south on the Gulf and we are in no hurry. We decided this would be a day to catch up and slow down. Cruising involves a lot of patience, which is a nice way of saying you spend a lot of your time waiting for something to happen. Today we needed to do what is called "commissioning" our autopilot. Normally that involves driving around in circles, watching commands on the screen and pretty soon the screen tells us we are done and can be on our way. Today this didn't happen. Frustrating!!
The waters off St James City are not busy at all, so driving a 37 foot sailboat in circles, though seemingly bizarre behavior bothered no one. The directions on the screen suggest a turn of about 390 degrees or just a little more than once around. After 3 circles the screen still read "calibrating....." we figured something wasn't right. We stopped, rebooted and tried again. Again the screen just said calibrating ........ for another 3 revolutions. The definition of insanity is ... well you know. But that doesn't always apply to bad connections. Frustrated Jack called tech support and got a message that our call was important to them, but not important enough to actually answer the phone so wait forever on hold or leave a number. We left a number. This went on for most of the day and after two long tech calls nothing was changed. While waiting for the tech support call-back, we dropped the dinghy and motored up one of the canals to a tacky bar called Ragged Ass Saloon. My mom would not approve. It was nothing amazing, so we spent 20 bucks on two beers and headed back out. Waterfront bars think they can get away with that and so far they have.
Tomorrow we set out into the gulf, hoping the autopilot will at least function. Who cares if we are breaking the rules and using a non-commissioned instrument. We'll fly the Jolly Roger and hope for the best.