Crew Arrival
February 26, 2025 | Prep-days in Cartagena
One might have thought that Cartagena would stand in stark contrast to the thrilling last few hours of our previous passage, providing us with calm and serenity after somewhat of a wild ride. But that would have been a vast underestimation of the exciting city that is Cartagena. Indeed, as we approached the harbour, we were overtaken left and right by what one could only describe as party boats. Loud music converged from different boats, crowds—small and large—dancing on the foredecks, twerking on the bow, raising glasses, skyscrapers and a sunset in the background.
After tying up on the outermost berth of our finger pontoon and getting ready to raise our own glasses to our passage, it soon became apparent that there was no such thing as a no-wake zone around here. So much so that in the busy hours of the day, we are experiencing a sea state that can only be described as smooth to, yes, slight. Walking on the floating pontoons becomes a real act of balance at these times. The occasional slap on Falken's stern from the bigger wakes makes the whole boat shudder and is usually met by some loud oohs and aahs, followed by some sailor's jargon emanating from the bow, where Adam has been working on replacing our windlass motor.
Adam arrived on Falken on Saturday morning, with a few important missions in mind. First of all, we had to replace our windlass motor, an essential piece of kit that we will need for cruising and anchoring around the San Blas islands. Maintaining a boat to the highest standards in distant locations sometimes requires a real group effort. In this case, two crew members gracefully accepted to each travel with a separate windlass motor, weighing no less than 20 kg. Big thanks to Susan and Håkan, without whom we'd have to operate our big chunk of steel at the bow manually. Of course, let's not forget Adam—it has been a joy watching him take care of his baby, Falken.
After a few days of maintenance, passage planning, and provisioning, our new crew finally arrived on the boat yesterday early afternoon. It must have been the hottest day for us in Colombia so far, as we were slowly working our way through our different pre-departure briefings. The evening always provides us, if not with fresh temperatures, at least with slightly cooler temperatures, which we enjoyed thoroughly, going out for dinner in the old town.
And as we are today going through all of our remaining safety briefs and POB training, I feel that everyone is getting ready to head out to the fresher air of the open sea tomorrow, first thing in the morning.
- Manot, FALKEN’s mate
ManotBerger
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A last hurrah
Under the dome of stars in a moon-less sky, each of us during our time at the helm used the most rudimentary celestial navigation, keeping a star or two lined up with the mast as a helper to following the heading range. It was a whole crew event to set the spinnaker, reef the mainsail and practice the heave-to in case of man overboard. Alex stressed that the key to success in all of these crucial activities is preparation. It was hugely satisfying to accomplish these tasks through teamwork. We share a constant good hearted back and forth full of stories, one-liners and comebacks that also means constant laughter.
One little bird!
Falken has almost rounded the Channel Islands and is cruising along splendidly about 100 miles offshore. Though several models predicted some slightly fresher winds today, we were met with a consistent 18-20 kts of pure bliss. It seems that from the moment we left the dock in San Francisco, there has been much laughter and conversation amongst everyone. The plan is to gybe in a few hours and begin our approach to Ensenada. As much as I do appreciate the jokes and intellectual musings, I equally appreciate the natural, silent moments we share at night, all of us on watch gazing up above to the shooting stars, constellations, and planets putting on their quiet show.
Birds and glows
The sun brought new wind and we were soon putting up the Yankee (jib) and turning off the motor. During the evening tradition of sharing “glums and glows” that follows the crew dinner, our Mate Ryan proclaimed it a “champagne sailing” kind of day. As Alex noted this evening, life goes by so fast that one of the very best things about his line of work is enjoying the passage of time in the slow lane of an ocean passage. But by tomorrow, the green blobs in the weather sailing app indicate we’re going to pick up some significant northwesterly winds and we’ll take them ever further south to the Channel Islands latitude. We’re all super excited for the knots to climb and to see Falken really run.