Spinnaker's Dream

Amidships the cruise-liner, passengers gather to board a gondola that will waft them up a cable to a luxuriously furnished spikey-looking aerostat trailing behind and far above the ship. After a few minutes travail in the comfortable pod, amidst oohs and ahhs and squeals of delighted children they disembark, greeted by the junior Sails Officer whose main job is to introduce passengers to the lounge, bar and restaurant facilities. As he nonchalantly mentions the Very-First-Class Cabins and Honeymoon Suites, his smooth delivery is interrupted by the First Officer who sticks his head out of the Flying Wheel Room long enough to tell him to "Report to Spar 17, we have a tacking wind coming in at 30deg relative". The junior officer's eyes light up and as the passengers look on with askance he hurries belowdecks after waving them in the direction of the Observation Lounge: "You don't want to miss this!".

As the hushed guests crowd to the windows, there starts the sound of canvas being unfurled in a breeze. Heretofore mysterious poles attached to the craft at odd angles sprout huge sails one-by-one as 'The Spinnaker's Dream' smoothly arcs across a mile of open water into it's new tethered position far afront the luxury liner.

Or, for those of you who read the last paragraph first: a very large, manned lighter-than-air sail assembly which not only tows its ocean liner around (or vice versa) but functions as one of its major passenger decks.