Latitude: 00°10’1N
Longitude: 089°11.2’W
Tuesday, 25th of March, 00°10’1N 089°11.2’W, 08:05 Local Time, 13:05 UTC
Excuse us for the little radio silence. We had a few busy, but definitely amazing days! Not only did we cross the equator, but we arrived in the beautiful Galapagos archipelago as well!
At around 10 a.m. local time and 15:00 UTC on the 25th, we crossed the equator! While congratulations were happening, a lot more was going on. Besides King Neptune making his way to NORDIC FALKEN, hundreds of seabirds had their breakfast all along our starboard. Neptune had the pleasure of making sure the seven of us (including me!) who hadn’t crossed the equator before were worthy of becoming shellbacks. The ceremony was perfectly arranged by Jim and was filled with a lot of giggles. It was a very special moment for everyone.
Yesterday we arrived at Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz! After having a bit of a struggle to find a nice place to anchor (it was quite busy), about ten or more immigration people checked everything onboard. Luckily, we got cleared without a problem. Even the “forbidden” lunch meat that Mary and I (as the 2/3 vegetarians on the boat) had been trying so hard to get people to eat wasn’t a problem.
Right after we were allowed to get in a watertaxi to step on land, it started raining as if a waterpipe had exploded up above, and this carried on the whole day. The crew went ashore for some walking around, and Alex, Mary, and I made sure the whole boat was fresh and clean again. We ended the day with a nice Ecuadorian dinner on Santa Cruz.
Today (the 27th) we went for a day tour on the island. The day started with a visit to some very impressive craters and walking and crawling through a lava tunnel. After these exciting views, it was time to see the giant tortoises (while getting bitten by a trillion fire ants). We ended the trip with a very hot, but very amusing bike ride back to the city center. Some of us thought two hours downhill wasn’t adventurous enough and we started with a 30-minute workout uphill—which was definitely an amazing idea in the middle of the day just below the equator! ;)
- Laura Blaauw | FALKEN Apprentice
PS. If you are reading this blog, please write some comments in the section below and we’ll send it over to the crew to read. I am sure they will love it :) - Mia & Andy (shore support on Leg 5, Panama to Galapagos)
FALKENCrew
View more passage logs
Ladies who reef
The trade winds have been kind, rolling the boat toward Hawaii in a steady, hypnotic rhythm—until last night, when a squall hit without warning and the wind jumped to 28 knots, slamming everything sideways. With rain driving down and the boat lurching underfoot, the crew had minutes to wrestle two reefs into the mainsail and get things back under control. What followed was a masterclass in wet, unglamorous, deeply satisfying teamwork—with less than 250 miles left to go.
Yankee Doodle Died at Sea, Riding on a FALKEN
A thin, foot-long tear in the yankee sail—50,000 miles of ocean behind it—and suddenly the final stretch to Hawaii just got a lot more interesting. The crew of FALKEN had been running a tight ship through the trades, reefing in squalls like clockwork, when the last dance finally caught up with them. How a skipper handles the moment everything goes sideways says everything about the voyage itself.
A Gen Z Perspective
At 31, the crew thought they were reasonably fluent in the English language—then they met Kip. Today, the crew's self-appointed Gen Z correspondent takes over the log from somewhere in the middle of the Pacific, delivering dispatches on Milky Way night sails, focaccia-induced visions, and the singular mission of getting eleven people's "badonkadonks" to Hawaii. Consider this your glossary.