day 3
October 3, 2024, 12:35 UTC | Day 3
Well, it's day 3 of passage, and we are now flying the Yankee and staysail and have a reef in the main. Back on the wind means a slightly more challenging below decks life for the team, but everyone is taking it in their stride. We were blessed with hundreds of dolphins last night that gave us a remarkable acrobatic display ahead of sunset. With 86 nm until our waypoint off Finisterre, it's almost halfway for the FALKEN team of adventurers. This evening, we expect a short lull in conditions, which we will once again time to charge our batteries, and then it looks like life on a heel until we reach our final destination of Lagos. All happy campers here at the bottom of Biscay.
- Emily
EmilyCaruso
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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.