Big first day!
48º 33.2’ N, 124º 28.1’ W
48º 33.2’ N / 124º 28.1’ W | Trasher Bay | 07:52 Local time, 14:52 UTC
It’s been a busy last 48 hours! Crew arrived to FALKEN in Victoria on Sunday mid-day in beautiful sunshine. FALKEN had sailed down from Ketchikan, Alaska the week before and had a few days to rest. Nikki is continuing as skipper on this leg, and Lovis, our apprentice, has been onboard since Hawaii. I flew in from Sweden on Thursday and have been battling a 9 time zone jet lag since getting here. Luckily, this morning I managed to sleep until 6am!
This passage is one of our ‘All-Women passages’, something we started a few years ago. I remember so well when Nikki, Emma, and I planned the first one in 2022 on ICEBEAR, and here we are, on the other side of the world with a group of 11 amazing women ready to set sail in the big ocean!
The day started off by getting familiar onboard, unpacking some bags, going over some safety briefings—how to stay floaty, fire free, and fancy—followed by a deck walk. After a nice meal ashore at a nearby restaurant with our very entertaining waitress, James, we all crashed hard on our pillows.
I thought we had an early start the next day with a 7:30 breakfast, but most of the crew had already been up for a while, taken showers, and were sipping coffee in the cockpit! I love when you can start a passage in the sunshine, or at least not in the rain. And to be up here in Victoria, where it rarely gets hot, it is to me the perfect temperature when the sun is out!
After a quick breakfast, we left the dock at nine to head over to the fuel dock before slipping lines and leaving Victoria behind us. The wind is not due to fill in for a day or two, so we spent the first day motoring to an anchorage 50 nm up the coast. A day of motoring can sound boring and stale, but it was a day full of briefings. The crew learned how to safely operate the winches in the cockpit, and the final test was to get Angela up the mast (a few meters) to attach the main halyard. Yes, they passed the test and Angela came down safely.
Every once in a while, someone shouted “whales,” and we must have seen whales close to ten times during the day—a big treat, especially for me being from Sweden!
At 7 pm, we dropped the hook in Trasher Bay and to my delight, Lovis had dinner ready for us! I would say that’s a big first day!
- Mia
mia@59-north.com
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Ketch us if you Kan
Falken is soon to carry on our preferred route of South, back to (hopefully) warmer climates. We’re all excited to set off and see more of this wild landscape as we head down to Victoria. A thermal trough over Vancouver combined with an offshore high pressure creating funneling NW’ly winds means it is due to be pretty fruity on the 9th. This passage is just under 600 miles, relatively short for Falken, but I’m sure we’ll be kept entertained with dramatic scenery, wildlife and weather!
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.