DAY 1
This afternoon we’ll sail. Well, hope to sail anyway. Lagos is sitting smack in the middle of the end of a long axis of high pressure, so there’s not much air moving around in the marina. The ‘Azores High’ is stretched out and has reached the coast here. Typically, you see the high centered further west, and along the coast of Portugal you tend to get northerlies, the ‘Portuguese Tradewinds’. Unlucky for us, we’re not in a typical pattern right now.
This week is a bit different from our normal A-B passages, so we have options. We’re going to end up back here in Lagos after a week of sail training, with a mix of inshore cruising and offshore, nonstop sailing. The plan this afternoon is to head over to Sagres, a beautiful little surfing town right at the very southwest tip of Portugal, tucked inside the high cliffs of Cabo Sao Vincente. We anchored there with some friends in 2018 aboard ISBJØRN, so I’m familiar with the small harbor. Back then, we got the anchor chain inextricably wrapped around some sunken junk on the bottom, having to get the local dive shop guys to come out and extricate us. So hoping to avoid that this time!
Alex, Mia, and I have a long list of lectures planned for the week, interspersed with the actual sailing, so if there truly is no wind we’ll spend a lot more time talking about weather routing and forecasting, break out the sextant for some celestial practice, and do any number of other fun lessons aboard FALKEN this week.
This is our last trip of 2023, and the first that Mia and I are sailing together since early 2020, before Axel was born! It’s nice to be back on the boat together in a professional capacity.
HOLD FAST! — Andy
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HMS Night Watch Party
Wing on wing worked well until the wind shifted then the helm became the cone of despair for our night watch crew of three (H, M and S) Alex made the decision to drop the pole, shifting wing on wing to a close reach. Wind increased to low teens and speed picked up to a flying pace. Day spent wandering toward Ensenada. Alex, Adam and David got us into port under another starry night.
No Kitemares Today
After a night marked by sudden wind accelerations peeling off Point Conception, and a vibrant, pulsating sky blistered with shooting stars, the off-watch woke to commotion on the foredeck. The wind had gone light and the swell had tapered just enough to raise the spinnaker. The sail filled with an urgent pop, the sheet strained and Falken charged down the face of the next wave. By mid-day, we doused the spinnaker and set our minds to the more precise task of safely punching through a gap in the notorious Cortez Bank. The border to Mexico looms ahead.
The California coast
We had a very lively first day of sailing with steady winds between 25 and 30 kn gusting to mid 30s. All of the crew got experience at difficult downwind helming as we covered 200 nautical miles in the first 24 hours. This morning brings winds in the teens and calmer seas. The sun is still shining, and the green monster has been slayed by those afflicted!