I gave a full weather briefing to a cormorant last week.Stood at the harbour wall this morning and did something I've done perhaps ten thousand times. Looked at the water. Read the conditions. Force 3 from the northeast, confused swell, pressure dropping. Took about four seconds. Completely automatic. Completely accurate.
Completely pointless.
There's no ship. There hasn't been for two years. No crew to brief, no passage plan to adjust. I stood there with forty-six years of accumulated weather knowledge and nowhere to put it.
The skill doesn't switch off because the context has changed. What you can do, apparently, is stand at a harbour wall delivering accurate weather assessments to nobody in particular.
I gave a full weather briefing to a cormorant last week. It didn't argue with my assessment, which puts it ahead of several first officers I could name.
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