Day 2
Saturday, May 4, 2024
Another day is coming to an end as we watch the sunset go down over the horizon. The good news is that FALKEN is still doing over 9 knots, which means we've done another 210 nautical miles+ day! The bad news is that we're still going upwind... that's right, ever since we left Cuba we've been on a hill—sleeping on an angle, cooking on an angle, socialising on an angle. The crew have been loving it though, and the smooth sea state is what's allowing us to have such great averages.
Chris and I are very excited for the upcoming days and the long-promised forecast for the wind to slowly start veering... only time will tell! In other news, we have experienced a couple of little squalls, everyone has had a shower, and rainbows have been spotted. It's also great to see how no one is suffering from the green monster, even on this constant angle!
I cooked a bolognese tonight and we had lovely discussions about how people eat their spaghetti over dinner. Thank God there aren't any Italians onboard! Much love to everyone! May the 4th be with you from onboard the Millennium Falken.
- Alex
laline96@gmail.com
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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.