Day 2
August 31, 2024 | Marstrand, Sweden
I get briefly woken up in the early morning by a WOHOOO scream from the helmsman standing on deck above my head. I guess they were surfing down a wave. After a while, my first mate and now my good friend Alex comes down from his shift. I get a real view of what a mariner’s workday looks like. I hear many “mm’s” and “so great!” when the crew eats the meal I manage to cook while heeling over. No need to guess—I feel at home on FALKEN. The starry nights, sunsets, and spinnaker sailing are extra bonuses.
After a few nice days in Marstrand, including boat preps, we set out tacking down the Gothenburg archipelago to get checked out. We sailed upwind into the night across to Skagen, and right now we are on the west coast of Denmark, bound to cross the North Sea over to the UK.
Hold fast!
David the apprentice
59ºNorthApprentice
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Turning the corner
Yesterday found Falken on a Northward course, still heeled to port, climbing and falling over waves. Sunrise this morning found Falken in an entirely different condition, one familiar to her, but not yet to the current crew. And then a truly magic moment, a pod of dolphins at least fifty members strong came to dance on Falken’s bow wave. We are now joyfully headed northeast, on course toward our eventual destination of Prince Rupert. Falken has turned a corner.
Onwards and upwards
Today is set to be the calmest day of our trip so far, waves subdued, wind veering off more south-east, light clouds. What an exhilarating ride it has been, beating upwind non-stop directly north for 6 straight days! What ahead of us is a mostly downwind sail to Prince Rupert, but a very exciting one. This makes it an interesting few days going fast and closely watching the weather, and I’m very much looking forward to it. The crew is happy, everyone seems to be getting good rest, enjoying watches and time in between.
Quadruple digits!
We are still headed north away from Hawaii, though today we have started to veer ever so slightly east. Speaking of miles, we hit quadruple digits today and are currently 1051 nms into our journey to Alaska. The sea state continues to calm down, and the famous North Pacific high is just out of our reach. The next few days will be a delicate dance of riding the outskirts of the high while avoiding the pesky low pressure systems that are dancing nearby. In his very wise words, we need to get north but not too far north, stay south but not too far south, continue heading east but not too far east, and avoid going west but also stay west.