Well, hello everyone. I’ve managed to sneak onto the blog thingy while no one else is looking. I thought that it’s about time I had my turn. It’s all well and good all of them banging on about watch keeping and navigating etc but we all know who really does the work around here, don’t we? When did I last get a cup of tea? And how many of those does one person need in a day? When did I last get to go off watch and lie down for a while?

Anyway, having gathered myself, this is Mildred speaking. The rather good-looking, slim attachment on the stern (see picture – rather a nice one I think, catches my red vane nicely in the light). I have a separate rudder from the one on the boat, which does the ’point it in the general direction’ type work; but when there’s any form of subtlety or finesse involved, it’s send for Mildred time! It’s my job to steer the boat when they all are too busy/can’t be bothered (delete as applicable!). Actually, that’s just my little joke ; the poor dears do get tired with their 3 hour watches through the day and night, and it can be challenging to steer in a straight line when the wind doesn’t do what you want it to – and it rarely does. So that’s what I do for them. They set me up nicely to steer a course relative to wind angle and give me a little tweak every now and again and I take care of all that wind variation nonsense. Well, most of it anyway.

I do have a little helper on occasion. His name is George. He is the autopilot. He drives the boat’s rudder using electrical power, hydraulics and other stuff like that to keep the boat on a set course (regardless of the wind angle), which is quite useful but really rather wasteful of battery power (and not to mention, between us, a bit smelly and dirty). I have tried to mention this to him but you know what he’s like – thinks he knows better and can’t possibly admit that he’s not good enough even when he’s been blown completely off course. I’m rather proud to say that that I am very environmentally friendly, with just a little dab of Parfum de WD40 behind the gears being all I need from time to time. It can be that George is useful for a quick setting up of a fixed course now and again. Of course I’m useful, all you need to do is press a button and set me off, press it again and I let them have control back. The trouble with you, Mildred, is that there’s too much fiddling about and no obvious button to make you start. Thank you, George, I think that’s enough from you!

There is a lot of weed (not the marijuana type, but something we all think is called something like Saragossa seaweed) in this part of the Atlantic. It floats on the surface and catches in a girl’s skirts as she is doing her utmost to point the boat in the right direction. The crew are all very good at keeping an eye on me and making sure that I don’t get covered in weed on the sharp edge of my rudder. It can be a bit of a faff scraping it off, but you’d be amazed the fun you can have with a boat hook in the middle of the night.

The Chatwatch team (Ronan and Sarah) are growing to like me a bit more I think after a testing start. Perhaps the problem is I’m a little staid and they’re a bit racey – well Ronan is anyway – always wanting to go faster – and as we all know, this is a rally not a race. He’s calming down and we’re starting to get on better, I think. The Navy Dits team (Nigel and Durks) are more used to having someone else drive their boats around (in the past they would have called him the coxswain but they are quite happy with the present upgrade to Mildred on Cassini I think!). And as for Mark and Simon, well theirs is not just any watch, theirs is the M&S watch. Thank you. Thank you for laughing at my little joke.

So we are all rubbing along pretty well, and as long as they keep my bottom clean, I’ll keep them pointing in the right direction and we’ll all get to Grenada to complete the ARC+ as soon as the winds allow. Goodbye, all. Mildred.