Saturday, July 12, 2025
Hello from the least experienced person on the crew! At sea for almost 2.5 days now. This is our second day of a full watch rotation and we’re all starting to get the feel of the routine. It’s afternoon now and finally the seas are a bit calmer. We certainly hit the ocean running! We had squalls, intermittent rain, and gusts of 35 kts. The Yankee jib came out and then went back in several times. Just put it out again and it looks like we may be able to leave it there for a bit longer.
We’ve seen tons of jumping fish today and we have a new part-time member of the crew—a brown booby who’s been following us since the wee hours of the morning, occasionally going for a ride on our pulpit.
Things that have surprised me as a novice sailor:
- A crew of 11 and not one annoying person in the bunch! Everyone is pleasant, helpful, and kind.
- I don’t mind the stickiness of the salt water and air at all.
- They’re not kidding when they say just living on a sailboat offshore takes a lot of energy.
- Lying down in your bunk and shutting your eyes really does help seasickness.
- The food is fantastic!
- After only knowing each other for a few days, we already have inside jokes.
- Helming is really fun!
- I can indeed learn to nap during the day!
- Stephanie L. | FALKEN Crew
FALKENCrew
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A last hurrah
Under the dome of stars in a moon-less sky, each of us during our time at the helm used the most rudimentary celestial navigation, keeping a star or two lined up with the mast as a helper to following the heading range. It was a whole crew event to set the spinnaker, reef the mainsail and practice the heave-to in case of man overboard. Alex stressed that the key to success in all of these crucial activities is preparation. It was hugely satisfying to accomplish these tasks through teamwork. We share a constant good hearted back and forth full of stories, one-liners and comebacks that also means constant laughter.
One little bird!
Falken has almost rounded the Channel Islands and is cruising along splendidly about 100 miles offshore. Though several models predicted some slightly fresher winds today, we were met with a consistent 18-20 kts of pure bliss. It seems that from the moment we left the dock in San Francisco, there has been much laughter and conversation amongst everyone. The plan is to gybe in a few hours and begin our approach to Ensenada. As much as I do appreciate the jokes and intellectual musings, I equally appreciate the natural, silent moments we share at night, all of us on watch gazing up above to the shooting stars, constellations, and planets putting on their quiet show.
Birds and glows
The sun brought new wind and we were soon putting up the Yankee (jib) and turning off the motor. During the evening tradition of sharing “glums and glows” that follows the crew dinner, our Mate Ryan proclaimed it a “champagne sailing” kind of day. As Alex noted this evening, life goes by so fast that one of the very best things about his line of work is enjoying the passage of time in the slow lane of an ocean passage. But by tomorrow, the green blobs in the weather sailing app indicate we’re going to pick up some significant northwesterly winds and we’ll take them ever further south to the Channel Islands latitude. We’re all super excited for the knots to climb and to see Falken really run.