COASTING DOWN BAJA
January 19, 2026 | 1941 Ship’s Time
Off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico
Motoring
Departure day, the first of 2026. Mary and I joked that this was probably the longest lead-up to a passage we’ve ever had - we arrived into San Diego on Saturday, January 10, deliberately a bit early as it’s the first trip of the year and we needed to recommission FALKEN after a 5-week layover. Plus move the boat down from her berth in Dana Point (dockage in San Diego was hard to come by, either too shallow, too expensive or both). As it turned out, Adam & Alex did such a nice job of decommissioning at the end of last season that there wasn’t too much for Mary & I to do. So we sailed her down from Dana Point with a group of volunteer crew and spent the rest of the week doing odd jobs and biding our time until the crew arrival yesterday.
The forecast looked (looks) bleak in terms of wind for sailing. We’ve had sunny skies and warm temps in SoCal, but no wind to speak of, so it was a bonus getting to sail out of the harbor in San Diego today on a light northwesterly. We spotted schooner AMERICA on the horizon, the 141-foot replica of the first boat to win the namesake Cup in 1851. Ryan & I had been aboard on Friday to interview the captain/owner for an upcoming podcast episode and got a tour of the boat. What a ship! Built in 1995 at the same yard as the WOODWIND schooners, Scarano in Albany, New York, she is stunning. It’s impossible to keep a black hull looking clean, but she glowed. They were out on one of their daily whale-watching tours near the Coronado Islands and we maneuvered over for a close fly-by.
I had a close call at customs this morning. Being that FALKEN is a foreign-flagged boat, we’re required to clear out of the USA. I took an Uber to the airport this morning, where the local customs office is, only to find out they were closed on MLK Jr. Day. Thankfully a friendly CBP officer saw me pacing in the hallway and stamped the form I needed, and we were good to go.
Eric, on his 4th passage with 59º North, drove FALKEN off the dock and we hoisted sail in the main channel of San Diego Harbor. A cool breeze was funnelling down the hillsides, so we cut the engine and ghosted along on a flat sea and into the ocean.
It didn’t last though, and while we managed to have a dinner under sail just as the sun was setting off the starboard beam, we furled the Yankee while the dishes were being cleaned up and have been motoring ever since on a glassy sea. The GRIBs are showing more of this for the next few days as we meander down the Baja coast. We should see a seabreeze effect in the afternoons as the land over the desert heats up and sucks in cooler air from the ocean, so we’re optimistic we’ll be able to sail more than the GRIBs are predicting. It’s whale season, so if nothing else we’ll be on the lookout for spouts.
// Andy
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Final Blog
Falken and her crew arrived safely into port last night around 8pm boat time, 10pm Prince Rupert time. Some spicy weather was anticipated, but luckily the 35kt gusts and 2.5 meter waves were no match for this expert crew. We had an exceptionally smooth docking, despite it being Alex's first time parking this year (!). We all agreed that this was a very special group of people—I for one am so impressed with how everyone stayed so positive, helpful, and appreciative of humor despite an arguably challenging passage. We'll all return home significantly saltier than we were when we left, a mark of a passage properly sailed.
Lessons and a Gift
The biggest lesson is the helm. The lesson here is that even if you don't think you can do it over and over again with no sleep, cold and damp, it has to be done and so it can be done. Flying fish are cool, dolphins are really really cool, but the coolest of them all are the whales. And most of all Alex: "Find your center Carla. Always know where your center is so you can come back to it". He means the helm but it applies to life as well.
Making the most of it
This passage has thrown pretty much every atmospheric condition imaginable at us. It reminds us not only of how much we’ve learned, but of how far we’ve literally come since that acceleration zone off the northwest corner of Oahu. The resilience this group has shown has been nothing short of incredible, and I couldn’t be prouder to be part of it. Maybe that’s why it’s the hardest passages we remember the most. Not because they were easy, but because they reminded us what we’re capable of.
