Day 4
Saturday, May 6, 2024
Hello everyone! What a great day today has been. Everyone onboard is smelling extremely well and looking very fresh, and the reason for that is that today we hove-to to have a mid-ocean dip! That's right, we went in the water and had a beautiful swim and clean before jumping back onboard to carry on sailing.
Everyone's morale is high and the wind has shown slight signs of wanting to change direction, but as for now... still upwind! I am pretty sure the wind gods are having a bit of a laugh at Chris and me as we await this wind shift that should have happened about two days ago. But in terms of upwind sailing, I do have to admit that it doesn't get any better than this: flat sea state, 10 knots of true wind speed, and about 8 knots of boat speed. It's like paradise for upwind sailing!
For dinner, I have made my homemade lasagna, which is currently slowly cooking in the oven and is filling the air with a lovely smell. The watches have just shifted and people are going down to nap before dinner.
So not much to say—life is beautiful onboard FALKEN at the moment as we enjoy every second of what this world is giving us, which is full sunshine, perfect breeze, and a whole bunch of extraordinary people.
Love to everyone.
- Alex
laline96@gmail.com
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A last hurrah
Under the dome of stars in a moon-less sky, each of us during our time at the helm used the most rudimentary celestial navigation, keeping a star or two lined up with the mast as a helper to following the heading range. It was a whole crew event to set the spinnaker, reef the mainsail and practice the heave-to in case of man overboard. Alex stressed that the key to success in all of these crucial activities is preparation. It was hugely satisfying to accomplish these tasks through teamwork. We share a constant good hearted back and forth full of stories, one-liners and comebacks that also means constant laughter.
One little bird!
Falken has almost rounded the Channel Islands and is cruising along splendidly about 100 miles offshore. Though several models predicted some slightly fresher winds today, we were met with a consistent 18-20 kts of pure bliss. It seems that from the moment we left the dock in San Francisco, there has been much laughter and conversation amongst everyone. The plan is to gybe in a few hours and begin our approach to Ensenada. As much as I do appreciate the jokes and intellectual musings, I equally appreciate the natural, silent moments we share at night, all of us on watch gazing up above to the shooting stars, constellations, and planets putting on their quiet show.
Birds and glows
The sun brought new wind and we were soon putting up the Yankee (jib) and turning off the motor. During the evening tradition of sharing “glums and glows” that follows the crew dinner, our Mate Ryan proclaimed it a “champagne sailing” kind of day. As Alex noted this evening, life goes by so fast that one of the very best things about his line of work is enjoying the passage of time in the slow lane of an ocean passage. But by tomorrow, the green blobs in the weather sailing app indicate we’re going to pick up some significant northwesterly winds and we’ll take them ever further south to the Channel Islands latitude. We’re all super excited for the knots to climb and to see Falken really run.