Day 3
What a glorious sunrise this morning as we cruise parallel to the coast of Puerto Rico. We set into our night sail with a poled-out jib and preventer on the main as yet another idyllic night sky welcomed us. The conditions held until just a few hours before dawn, as Chris noted an increase in wind and a darkening sky to windward. In good time, we dropped into the second reef and balanced the jib to ride out the first squall of the passage. All went without drama, and we have continued to make good speed with a reduced sail area since. The teams are well into the swing of things now as we welcome a new month, and I'm on the lookout for any naughty crew attempting an April fool.
EmilyCaruso
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Ladies who reef
The trade winds have been kind, rolling the boat toward Hawaii in a steady, hypnotic rhythm—until last night, when a squall hit without warning and the wind jumped to 28 knots, slamming everything sideways. With rain driving down and the boat lurching underfoot, the crew had minutes to wrestle two reefs into the mainsail and get things back under control. What followed was a masterclass in wet, unglamorous, deeply satisfying teamwork—with less than 250 miles left to go.
Yankee Doodle Died at Sea, Riding on a FALKEN
A thin, foot-long tear in the yankee sail—50,000 miles of ocean behind it—and suddenly the final stretch to Hawaii just got a lot more interesting. The crew of FALKEN had been running a tight ship through the trades, reefing in squalls like clockwork, when the last dance finally caught up with them. How a skipper handles the moment everything goes sideways says everything about the voyage itself.
A Gen Z Perspective
At 31, the crew thought they were reasonably fluent in the English language—then they met Kip. Today, the crew's self-appointed Gen Z correspondent takes over the log from somewhere in the middle of the Pacific, delivering dispatches on Milky Way night sails, focaccia-induced visions, and the singular mission of getting eleven people's "badonkadonks" to Hawaii. Consider this your glossary.