The wind was actually much heavier than we originally assumed. It must have picked up a few knots while we were rigging, because I was quite overpowered when I left the dock. The whitecaps had become larger. It must be at least fourteen knots, and that was only inside the harbor. Outside would be a completely different story.

I was ahead of the group as we sailed upwind out of the harbor. Jackson was driving his motorboat ahead of me and watching me every move.

"Hike, Mattie!" He called. I slipped my feet into the hiking straps and leaned backwards. I felt my O'pen Bic flatten.

When the rest of the group had finished their upwind trek out of the harbor and joined me and Jackson, we all turned onto a reach towards the ominous hull of the Ghost Ship that lurked in the distance. Jackson sped off to check it out before we got there, and Ally stayed with us, helping Bradley, because he was quite afraid of sailing on such a windy day. I used to be afraid too, but I've been sailing for so long that I'm over it now.

I watched my telltales and trimmed my sail so it was halfway out. We were sailing on a beam reach. The wind was whipping the water and creating waves that sloshed over the sides of the Bics because we were sailing parallel to them. A little ways back, I saw Emma get knocked off course by a wave that crashed into the side of her boat. That must be a pain.

There was the sound of an engine and Jackson was back with the group.

"What's it like?" Ally asked him.

"Its huge! I've never seen a boat so big!" Jackson exclaimed.

This was making me excited. The hull of the mysterious boat was growing closer and closer as we sailed towards it at high speeds. Finally, we made it.

"Whoa...." I heard Margaret say from behind me as we looked up at the massive, unfinished sailboat. The hull was made completely of what appeared to be steel or some sort of metal, and because the boat had been sitting in the water untouched for so long, there was seaweed growing on the bottom. It was so big, you could fit at least five O'pen Bics, one on top of the other, with their masts in to reach the very top. At least five.

"It's kind of strange, just this giant boat hull floating in the middle of the water just off Ocean Point..." I heard Alex say.

"And nobody has ever been here to work on it. They built this unfinished hull, and that's that. No mast, no nothing!" Eliza observed.

"I think it's cool," Bradley grinned.

"Bradley, you think anything scary or haunted is cool!" Russell called from where he was sailing in circles.

"That would be correct!" Bradley shouted back to him.

"I wonder how many feet it is." Jackson stared at the hull.

"It's got to be sixty, at least," I responded.

"No Mattie, that's way more than sixty feet....." Ally turned her motorboat in a circle to get a better angle of the ship.

"Okay, everyone sail ten times around the Ghost Ship!" Jackson called. There were several moans of, "Jackson!" But we all did as we were told. We sailed upwind along one side of the massive hull, tacked around the bow, and sailed downwind along the other side, gybed around the stern, and then back upwind again ten times.

While I was sailing, I couldn't help but wonder why somebody would want to build such a massive boat, and then all of the sudden stop working in it and leave it untouched, floating on it's mooring in the waters just off of Ocean Point Harbor. Nobody had ever seen any workers or builders on it. Nobody could just leave a boat this big here and not have a thirteen year old sailor like me wonder about it.

The wind was steadily picking up speed, and time was short, so Jackson and Ally decided to call it quits.

"Let's head in!" They called. The sailors turned their boats around so that they were on a reach back to the mouth of the harbor. From the mouth, we turned downwind to head back to the docks, the wind pushing massive walls of water that we surfed on by pumping our sails.

I tied my bait to the docks and began to de rig. As I was placing my daggerboard and rudder in the blade rack, Russell came to the dock. I ran to grab his bowline and tie his boat down so he could begin to de rig. That's when I noticed his boat didn't have a rudder.

"Russell, where'd your rudder go?" I asked him.

"While we were sailing downwind, I death rolled."

"Yikes. Was your rudder clipped in?"

"I thought so, but apparently not. O'pen Bic rudders sink like stones."

Wow. I had never death rolled before, but it was scary. A death roll often hallens when a boat is sailing downwind, when the sailor forgets to put enough boom vang on. The boat just doesn't capsize, it goes straight unto a turtle, often dropping the sailor into the water before they even realize what's happening.

I helped poor Russell drag his boat onto the dock. It just have been a long day for him.

We finished lifting all of the Bics onto the racks and tied them down, and sliding our sail bags underneath the racks. Then we walked up to the locker area, took a quick drink from the water fountain, then went to our lockers to stow our gear.

My life jacket was sopping wet and my sunglasses were crusted with salt. It had been a long and windy and mysterious day. I dropped everything in my locker, grabbed my bags, and went to ride my bike home.