Day 1
38°29.68N 26°17.58W
June 18, 2024 | 06:30 UTC | 38°29.68N 26°17.58W
The boat is already smelling of coffee as I am getting up. Passing by the port aft bunks, I see them already empty and made to perfection. In the galley I hear a few quiet “good mornings” as I greet the still sleepy but visibly excited crew. An hour and a half to go before everyone meets on deck. A last phone call, a last stroll down to the shore heads, we are on the doorstep of an adventure.
0800, everyone meets on deck. Chris quickly distributes roles and we get the lines ready to slip. A few moments later we tie up at the fuel dock. There, things slowed down for one last time—waiting for our turn, filling our tanks, chatting, waiting… and finally slipping the lines.
1200, we are sailing! Some of the brightest smiles that I have seen were from people taking the helm of a cool boat like FALKEN for the first time. And today was no exception—all the time spent waiting for this day to arrive after first making the plans, all the excitement, maybe a bit of nerves, then realizing how easy it is to steer, the power, the speed, yet it feels so light… bright smiles!
Later, still smiles. We are sailing upwind, in 10-12 knots of wind. It’s perfect. The sea is smooth, steering is easy, we are gliding. Somewhere at sea in the setting sun, the smell of baking vegetables is spreading through the boat… What a lovely day! - Manot
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.