Saturday

Parasail Above My Head


November 20
Felt weird to sleep in the V-berth again, after two straight days at sea. We looked at the weather and decided that it would be best to leave first thing, rather than stay anchored in the small creek. The winds were scheduled to be 10-15 knots, but actually they were more like 6 knots! It all began with our attempt at trying to rig the whisker pole to the jib. It was too high, too low, rubbing on the life lines... things were all pointing to trouble. We stored the pole and rolled the jib away. Discussed the option of taking out the large parasailor to go downwind. First thing is first, the bag that holds the parasailor weighs 70 lbs, maybe more, the retail value is $10,000 and covers 20,000 square feet. Took it to the foredeck, rigged all the hardware and hoisted the sock that holds the sail. Things kept getting clustered and the sail wouldn't shoot out. So we kept bringing it back down and re-attempting, it was frustrating and some cursing took place. Finally had it all set up... and it was collapsing every now and then because of such light airs. Tonight my shift is from 1am-4am. Not much traffic out on the water... however I almost gave myself a shit attack. One of the yellow private buoys had no lights and zoomed by me. It scared the living hell out of me... I was keeping a good lookout and then out of no where a buoy pops up beside us. The stars are still everywhere and the moon is just perfect right now. Our destination changed in the middle of the night, from St-Augustine, FL to Fernandina Beach, FL. We should be hitting land near sunrise... Amelia Island.







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