CUTTER RIGS & CREW APPRECIATION
2121 UTC | 12 53.89’N, 089 33.34’W
Sailing
Hello from a currently very speedy FALKEN!
After spending the night enthusiastically getting the sails out whenever we felt a whiff of a breeze, then efficiently furling them away again as it quickly died off, it is a joy to have some consistent breeze this afternoon.
At the moment we have the full cutter rig out; Yankee and staysail, and are happily scooting along at 7–9 knots and occasionally into the 10s! This is despite some fairly large swell, which must be the remnants from the Papagayo winds. It makes us glad to have chosen a more northern passage to avoid the worst of them, and set ourselves up for a nice reach across them on our final night at sea.
On the topic of lovely, efficient sailing, I must give a shout out to Marella and Christine. They make up our 2 (wo)man watch, so are down a person comparatively. They’re also on deck whenever I first come on watch and inevitably decide it is ludicrous to have the engine on in 4 knots of breeze. So we must get out all the sails and spend hours fastidiously trying to go in the right direction. They have done this with no complaint and are so competent, I’m fairly sure I’m just along for the ride nowadays. I was actually asked by Jakes to give this shout out, but it is long overdue.
In other news, we’ve broken the booby record — we got 8 on the bow this morning! Having hoisted the staysail, it seems we have been cooking up some squid jerky on the foredeck. No one’s opted to give it a taste yet, but we will keep you updated.
Lloyd’s been studying the star books, whilst Delaney’s been reducing and plotting her sights from this morning. We had the whiteboard out to chat about sail choices/trim (how serendipitous the weather then allowed for the cutter rig) and different keels.
After a brief conversation about the Palmyra murders (give it a Google!), Robert’s clearly been dwelling on them, as he told me today he was writing a letter in case of him disappearing. Hopefully that doesn’t say anything about his opinion on his fellow crew.
Other animal sightings today: porpoises feeding, jumping rays, turtles, and a marlin leaping. We’ve talked about fishing again, but currently we’re going too fast, and after yesterday’s showers no one’s particularly keen to volunteer to butcher the fish.
I believe this may be my last blog, so as people love a bit of public recognition:
I think this might have been one of my more challenging trips in recent years. Possible fuel stops, frustrating light winds, straight into gale-force winds and very rough seas. It’s not been the most straightforward, and I think the crew deserve credit for accepting that this is sailing, and being so understanding and tolerant. They’ve not stopped believing me when I’ve said the wind’s supposed to fill in within the hour — for about 5 hours straight — and they’re just enjoying the ride!
// Mary
View more passage logs
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.
Golden Day
The Pacific is giving us “the shimmer” - with a still flat sea seven hours out of San Francisco Bay, we’re motoring south along the shipping channel, with an hour to go to what teases now as a stunning sunset against wispy clouds. Throughout this first day of Falken 11 the sails have unfurled and been furled again as skipper Alex tries to fill them a meager breeze indeed. We’ve seen a few whales traveling along the route, and an otter that was sadly just a buoy. It’s the first open ocean sail for many of us and it’s a thrill to anticipate all the new experiences we’ll have.