baptism of fire

Emily Caruso
Emily Caruso
Passage Blog
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
January 7, 2025, 23:45 UTC | Baptism of Fire

Well, that was a breezy start with some impressive swell on the good ship FALKEN on Monday. A baptism of fire perhaps for some, as we made excellent time southeast ahead of the impending high pressure that would invariably cause us issues later. We chose a route east of our planned rhumb line to exploit the forecasted easterlies off the coast of Morocco, and sure enough, it enabled us to sail for most of Tuesday.

As expected, the high has now emerged and we are forced to utilize the iron sail as we make best speed south. To the west of us, another interesting system is driving strong southwesterlies, and we are expecting to see the swell increase again in the coming days.

Another tactical waypoint guides us to the north of Lanzarote, where the trusty northeasterlies promise to build on Thursday morning and hopefully will provide another impressive sail at the back end of our passage. The crew have settled in well despite a little seasickness in the first 24 hours, which is pretty standard. Thankfully, this evening we had a full house at dinner time as color appears to have returned to those initially impacted.

We have been delighted by dolphins and a spectacular sky of stars last night, both of which have lifted the spirits of the crew. Whilst nobody wants to be motor sailing, we have the promise of a stiff breeze to look forward to as we make our approaches to the Canary Island chain.

Emily

EmilyCaruso

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