After 2 months on the FKG dock, it was a dream to not only get off but go sailing with our new rigging and parasail. She is a beaut! But, much work had to be done to get to the point of sailing. New blocks had to be installed, two new winches, a new flip flop block on the mast, and new lines and soft shackles. In this video, you will see the installation of the rigging, some winch servicing demonstration, and finally, the sailing of the parasail. The wind gusts were over 20-25 knots so we didn’t want to push the sail too much. It took a couple of hours battling the wind to get the sock around the sail in the first place. But, it was a beautiful, sunny day so we were happy campers.
We bought this sail and invested in all the rigging because our dream is to circumnavigate the globe. It was an expensive endeavor, but we are told that this sail will quickly become our favorite to use. We have a slim sail inventory in the first place. We look forward to testing her out in calmer winds.
We are so thankful for the FKG rigging team who prepared the boat, for Wouter especially who was involved in all aspects of the process, and for him and Kelsey coming out on the boat to set up the sail and test it out. FKG is a special place and we are thankful for their part in making s/v Blown Away a blue water sailing vessel!
NEW TO OUR CHANNEL? We are Eileen and Brown Councill. Welcome to our channel and a glimpse into our life adventure! 2020 was a year of uncertainty and change (for all of us, right?), but we overcame the challenges and decided it was time to chase our dream, to sail around the world! Did I mention that we had very NO sailing experience? Before leaving Qingdao, China, our home of 4 years, we sold almost all of our earthly possessions and started our international search to find the right sailboat that we would call "home." After 5 months of unanticipated twists and turns, we found what we were looking for, a used Leopard 44' Catamaran located in St. Lucia.
So, here begins our journey, filled with unmatched excitement and honestly, a bit of trepidation as well. We have much to learn as we travel the world on our floating home and we intend to document that journey and share it with you. We are so glad you have decided to join us, and we hope that you will find our story so compelling that it will inspire you to chase your dreams too!
As a viewer, we consider you to be part of our family and look forward to getting to know you. Don't hesitate to comment on our videos and ask questions. We will do our best to answer every correspondence! All we ask is that you have patience with us as we work really hard to improve our camera/video techniques and ability to tell a story. Hopefully, you will be as BLOWN AWAY from watching, as we are in experiencing and producing our adventures!
HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US? If you wish to support our video efforts, all we ask is that you SUBSCRIBE, give a THUMBS UP, SHARE our videos with your friends, AND COMMENT! WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET TO KNOW US MORE DEEPLY? It would be an honor and pleasure to deepen our relationship with you as a Patron. Please click on the following link to see how: https://www.patreon.com/sailingblownaway
Our dream is to circumnavigate the globe.
To accomplish this goal, we needed a downwind sail.
And after much research, we bought a parasail and hired FKG to rig it for us.
Having fun?
Yes.
All right, you're the man.
Looking good up there.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, baby.
Good job, Walter.
It's beautiful.
Babe.
Man, feel how heavy that thing is.
The rigging crew at FKG installed two winches and three blocks.
And they even taught us how to service our winches.
And then here you can see that you can change the self-tailer.
You see?
Twist it.
Got it.
And then this turns.
We found this winch class to be invaluable for not only learning how to properly maintain
our own winches, but also how they function.
Walter was an excellent teacher, testing our understanding by asking us to put the winch
back together again.
Walter also installed a new block on the mast with Manel rivets and a custom wedge to ensure
our parasail would have a strong connection to the mast.
We had heard from cruising friends that factory-installed blocks had ripped out of masts due to the
force of the sail.
Great.
So here we are at long last, taking out our Oxley sail.
Oh, that's awesome, Pepe.
Thank you so much.
Okay, sir.
Nice.
Thanks.
You too, buddy.
Yeah, man.
It's an exciting day.
We've received our parasailer, and Brown is going to open it with a box cutter and hopefully
doesn't cut the sail.
Looks like we've got a trough.
And that's to blow up the snuffer.
And here's the bag.
Look at the board around there.
That's what we're going to store it in.
We're going to use it.
The snuffer, right there.
It's got the bladder in it.
This has got to be the sail, right there.
All right.
That's it, guys.
So we're going to be hooking this thing up to our rigging that we put on, and we're going
to be sailing this thing in a few days.
Today is an exciting day.
We're headed out to the bay, and then Valter from FKG is going to come and join us.
And we are going to put the parasail up and learn how to sail with the parasail.
But we are about 20 minutes away from the opening of the bridge, and so we've got to
just kind of hang out here.
So Brown got us out beautifully through the bridge, and now we're going to anchor out
here in Simpson Bay and wait for Valter to come and pick us up.
It's a big day.
It's time to run the spinnaker, sweetie.
Hey, guys.
Thank you.
Thanks, Lee.
Hey, buddy.
Well, we are with a friendly professional idea that we are not worthy.
And Valter is so handsome and capable.
Do you want me to bring this other stuff?
Yeah.
Okay.
Wind gusts were quite strong, so setting up the sail was a challenge and took the full
attention of all four of us, even if some of us served as dead weight, just to keep
the sail from flying prematurely.
Look how light.
This is like ripstop nylon, and it's super light.
I wonder if this thing's just going to rip right when I stick it up.
That's why you pay the big bucks for this, because it's made out of high-tech materials
that withstand the sun and are strong and light, so when you're in six knots.
The first task was to thread the head of the sail to the top of the sock and soft shackle
it into place.
So basically, now it's sitting like this.
Yeah.
And it's all bunched up at the top.
And then we're going to pull it down.
Electrical tape is just so that you can balance the double soft shackle.
Gotcha.
And so that it doesn't open.
Because there's three bridles.
There are two.
Is that good?
Three bridles versus two?
Oh, my goodness.
There's so much metal.
Really?
Yeah.
Is it like Valter good?
It took a long time to pull the sock over the sail.
The wind gusts only served to make it more of a challenge.
But eventually, we were able to move on to securing the blocks and attaching the spinnaker
halyard and sheets.
Hold on.
I'm on it.
No, it's OK.
Don't need that.
Just stay on it.
So it hangs on this strop rope, both sides.
It's very important, on both sides.
You know, there's pressure.
It's not coming out.
The only thing is that this orientation of the block is like this.
So if I would put it on like that, it will make a weird twist.
OK.
So that's why I extend it a little bit.
And then it makes it a little bit more clear.
OK, cool.
And you understand the use of the winch now, right?
To trim the sail.
Yeah.
Take a little bit on the left.
Yeah.
There's about, let's say, 200 kilos on the sheet.
OK.
Whenever you're easing a sheet, if you're going to take a turn on,
just load up the winch, right?
And then if you want to take a turn on, you have to put your hand here
and take one off.
And then you feel.
It's on the outside.
Facing you.
Yes.
So that's a whole frequency.
Yeah.
But as long as you have this tight or down, nothing can happen.
OK.
It's just going to be a shock like this.
Right.
In the air.
Without a lot of air.
At best.
OK.
So if you're ever in doubt that you run the sheet wrong
or that something happened or there's something wrong.
Don't let go.
For example, this sheet always stays with you.
No matter what.
OK?
OK.
After a couple of hours of prep, we were now ready to motor down to Philipsburg.
How fast do you think we'll go with this pair of sails?
Bouncer says 13.
Kelsey does not have as much faith in us.
She says 8 to 9.
After turning downwind, we hoisted the sock and then let the parasail fly for the first time.
Wow.
She is a beautiful sail.
And so much bigger than we anticipated.
This is it, ladies and gentlemen.
More than this.
So basically you trim it so it doesn't start to move all the side.
You want to keep it a bit stable.
You can see what happens.
Because with a kite like this, the middle section, that is actually creating a lot more balance.
If we do this with a normal swimming suit again, it would start to go to the side.
The boat flew back to Simpson Bay and in no time, we pulled in the sail.
Then we learned how to store it properly in its bag and put all of its components away.
What I realized is that you can't put the doughnut in the...
In the bag.
In the peg.
Yeah, you have to put the bag in.
To put a sail into a bag, like a snooker sail, you have to start with the belly.
And then you just always want to check all your lines and make sure that they're running smoothly.
And I personally do the daisy chain.
You can do it on your sail because this is a new line.
It doesn't work on old lines because the line has...
So the nautical turn is... I don't have a clue.
Is that a nautical turn?
You see, so now you put it up.
You put it up like this.
So we take already one place back.
We are headed back into the lagoon with Captain Brown at the helm.
It was a fantastic few hours out on the water and getting to see our parasail fly for the first time was amazing.
It took us one step closer to fulfilling our dream.
We are really thankful for Kelsey and Wouter and all of their help and instruction for teaching us how to fly the parasail.
