Latitude: 00°10’1N
Longitude: 089°11.2’W
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
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”For some things, we will never be ready.” - Moana 2
After 852 miles of open ocean sailing, the crew of Falken dropped anchor in Moorea's Cook's Bay—not with a quiet glide in, but surfing down waves in a squall, breaking speed records and cheering each other on through the rain. What started as a plan to "just dip a toe" into offshore sailing turned into something harder to explain: the worse the conditions got, the more alive everyone felt. Turns out the question was never whether the crew was ready—it was whether they even needed to be.
Kauehi conundrum
Kauehi atoll was always on the itinerary—until the forecast made it a gamble not worth taking. Squalls, bommies, a tidal pass, and no clean escape route: sometimes the hardest call in sailing is the one that keeps you out of a place, not in it. The Tuamotus will have to wait.
Hove-to!
Falken is too fast—a problem most sailors would kill for, yet here we are, tacking back and forth across the Pacific just to kill time. A rogue low pressure system south of Tahiti has stolen the trades and scrambled our timing for the tidal window into Kauehi's pass, leaving us hove-to 45 miles short of our target in the Tuamotus. Salt licorice, dream sandwich debates, and a philosophical question about mermaid reproduction are helping pass the night.