T&T: "landlubbers"??

[clyde fernortner]

just want to add to the steering thing...when traveling across the gulf of 
alaska in '54', on a 60ft seiner, headed for the alutians, we had a 
following swell (15/18 ft) all the way across...i was the kid, so i got to 
steer a lot!(cause i could) having grown up on a 40ft troller in se alaska, 
i already knew how...the other problem is steering by compass...i found that 
even one that is over 12" in diameter, is more than difficult in a large 
swell...if the boat gets even the thickness of a pencil line off, it`s a 
long ways off course!...a funny one on me...we were moving to wragell, 
alaska in abt '45' (that`s 1945) and we were headed north up the strait of 
georgia, (between vancooover islnd, and the mainland) with the water flat 
like a mill pond, and i was steering on the flying bridge, my dad came up 
after abt an hr, and asked if i knew that the shortest distance between two 
points was a straight line!! not sure what i answered, but he then told me 
to look behind us...looked like a long snake! the point i`m making, is that 
most people tend to oversteer in the beginning, and also tend to turn the 
wheel to much, and don`t counter when the boat comes back...my wife is from 
germany, and had never seen a boat...now after almost 30 yrs, i trust her 
completely...does`nt hit islands/logs...tells me to look at the straight 
line behind too...after my nap!...c