Day 1 at-sea
15º 09’ N, 026º 22’ W
February 7, 2024
0536 Ship’s Time
15º 09’ N, 026º 22’ W
Steering 215º at about 8 knots
The tiniest sliver of moon is rising in the southeast, creating a surprisingly bright light in the hazy air. The Southern Cross constellation is aligned perfectly with the end of the poled-out jib, making it easy for the helmspeople to steer a straight course. The wind is up a touch, and it’s smooth sailing to the SSW.
We left Mindelo in a dusty haze around 1000 after a leisurely breakfast and after checking off the last of the pre-departure items. I had been feeling less anxious than ever in the few days prior, but those moments leaving the dock always get my heart beating with that special combination of nerves and excitement. A few hundred yards from the dock, after stowing lines and fenders, we hoisted the mainsail and bore away onto a broad reach and out into the channel between Sao Vincente and Santo Antao, and with that we were off.
As expected, the winds built in the channel and by noon FALKEN was surfing down waves and touching 14 knots, with just the mainsail set. Windspeeds topped 30+ in the sharp acceleration zone where the gentle trades are squeezed between the high peaks of the neighboring islands and shot out like a cannon. Whitecaps were all around us, flying fish scurrying out of the way of our bow wave. The steering was challenging, especially right off the bat, but everyone got a turn on the helm and did well. A few hours later we left the strongest winds behind, set the jib tops’l on the pole, and moseyed off to the WSW on port tack. Manot served up the traditional first-night-at-sea lasagne and the watches began.
As I type, we’re getting ready to jibe onto starboard tack and start making some westing on what will be our preferred tack. The weather forecast shows the steadiest tradewinds remain around 13-14º N latitude, so we put some southing in right off the bat. So while it appears that we’re headed well off course on the chart, it’s actually part of our routing strategy. We expect to be able to stay on starboard tack now for several days in a gentle band of NE’ly breeze.
Jibing the downwind rig is a whole process, with poles, preventers, and guylines strewn about the foredeck and the cockpit. We’ll save that description for a later blog. For now, we’ll wait for the first glow of daylight and the watch change to jibe this ship around.
— Andy
andy@59-north.com
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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.