Route Map   Weather Map   Daily Journal         Q & A   Special Reports   Education Section           The Game Click here to send the Viking adventurers your questions		A viewpoint from the starboard side. Date: August 2, 1998 Click on the pictures below to view enlargements. A report from the Rudder The author My co-conspirator Since these latter-day Vikings are always going on about my friend P.C. Mobile and me, we figured it was high time to file our own journal entry. We are tired of being maligned - or, as I should say in my case, misaligned - by these technological misfits. Every time my friend P.C. shuts down, he sighs, "One computer geek, just one computer geek - is that too much to ask?" For my own part, I have had quite a few laughs over humanity's technological backsliding in the nautical realm. Imagine, 3000 years of design evolution gone into perfecting the side rudder, all thrown over for the stern rudder - which is basically a barn door hung on the boat's backside, requiring massive muscle power to control. Not to mention brains, which has never been a strong point with the humans. And what's with all this fiberglass? Where's the skill in that? Well, when the best they can do is turn "Rob the Mattress Slayer" loose on me, what else can you expect? [Editor's note: See Erik Larsen's July 18 journal for the air mattress story.] Then there's "Dean Computer Plaguer," who, to his credit, is confining his foul-ups to technology born in the same century as himself. As my friend P.C. laments, "If only we could eliminate the human factor." Top of page