A Dark & Stormy Night

2026-3 | FALKEN | Costa Rica-Galapagos

Joe

Passage Blog
Saturday, March 21, 2026

22:00 UTC | 05°46.9 N 87°33.8W

Sailing!

It was a Dark and Stormy (in the distance) night. The Milky Way and stars filled the sky. Falken continued south by southeast, with a course of 200 degrees. We were guided by the Southern Cross off the bow, and approximately 35 Brown Boobies who were hitching a ride. Dolphins creating streaks of bio illuminances. After sunrise and breakfast, Alex led an hour of instruction on Celestial Navigation, and how to operate the sextant. From late morning to mid afternoon, the seas remained calm and flat until about 1430. The wind picked up to about 12 knots as we passed Isle de Cocos at 1545. At 1630, engine went off. The smell of dinner being created by Adam in the galley filled the breeze, and we will be sailing off into the sunset tonight with ice cream!!!

Joe

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LAND HO!

The formula for distance to the horizon (in nautical miles) is the square root of the height of eye (in feet) times 1.15. Which means the easternmost island in the Marquesas, Ua Huka, which is 2,806 feet high, should have been visible at 60.9 nautical miles, at around 430 pm, ship’s time, this afternoon. We didn’t however factor in cloud cover.

24/4/2026
LAND HO!

Dolphin party!

Kate was about to yank the spinnaker’s sock down when I spotted a stampede of fins heading straight for us. ”Dolphins!”, I yelled back to the cockpit excitedly. Post dinner dish duty was halted down below for the show.

23/4/2026
Dolphin party!

The pool is open!

We stopped the boat, got the ladder down and put out a line with a fender behind the boat. I love swimming in the middle of the ocean, and a bit scary when you realize its more than 4000+ m deep! Love it!

Maria Karlsson
21/4/2026
The pool is open!