Day 2
FALKEN has been doing great, and apart from the odd job here and there—normal after a yard period—she has to be in the best shape I have ever seen her after a winter break. Kudos to Adam for looking after her and making the improvements we get to enjoy.
On a more personal note, this trip has been brilliant. We left with plenty of time to get there, and it has meant that we have been able to stop and enjoy the surroundings more often, trying to sail through the light winds instead of motoring through them, and having the chance to go for ocean swims, which is always a highlight.
We will let you know how we get on. Signing off as dolphins approach.
Alex
laline96@gmail.com
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”For some things, we will never be ready.” - Moana 2
After 852 miles of open ocean sailing, the crew of Falken dropped anchor in Moorea's Cook's Bay—not with a quiet glide in, but surfing down waves in a squall, breaking speed records and cheering each other on through the rain. What started as a plan to "just dip a toe" into offshore sailing turned into something harder to explain: the worse the conditions got, the more alive everyone felt. Turns out the question was never whether the crew was ready—it was whether they even needed to be.
Kauehi conundrum
Kauehi atoll was always on the itinerary—until the forecast made it a gamble not worth taking. Squalls, bommies, a tidal pass, and no clean escape route: sometimes the hardest call in sailing is the one that keeps you out of a place, not in it. The Tuamotus will have to wait.
Hove-to!
Falken is too fast—a problem most sailors would kill for, yet here we are, tacking back and forth across the Pacific just to kill time. A rogue low pressure system south of Tahiti has stolen the trades and scrambled our timing for the tidal window into Kauehi's pass, leaving us hove-to 45 miles short of our target in the Tuamotus. Salt licorice, dream sandwich debates, and a philosophical question about mermaid reproduction are helping pass the night.