Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

This is nothing new. The charter boats in the VI

during Hugo were just dumped in the mangrove swamps with the roller head sails up, the mains still on and only one of the two anchors on deck deployed. One head sail came loose on a boat two up from me as the storm picked up. The guy just in front of me asked me over the radio if I would help him secure it because he thought it would pull out the anchor and come down on him. I agreed because I thought if that happened I would be in the mix for sure. We worked our way up to it in a small dinghy hand over hand, got on board and tried to keep from getting clobbered by it. After trying to retrieve it several times I just took out my knife and gave it a slice and it was gone. I mean really gone. In about one minute all that was left was a rag. Boy, what a night that was. I never ever want to do that again, period.

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