Day 4 At-sea
January 26, 2024
Another day is coming to an end as we watch the glare of the sun disappear through the sandy haze in the air. Life has been much quieter the last day, with the wind disappearing completely and the engine making an entrance. The good news about having the engine is the white noise it creates down below, meaning everyone has had a good sleep and spirits and energies are flying high.
The highlight of today has to be the stuff happening on deck. We all had a good clean and showered with the deck shower, and immediately after we witnessed a couple of whales coming to say hi. After that, we had different lessons on trimming followed by a delicious dinner. The deck team did great washing the deck down and tackling the sand that has been basically everywhere the last few days. Everything that once was white is now orange, and I cannot wait to give FALKEN a very well-deserved wash down in Cape Verde!
Our current ETA is Sunday morning, so only a couple of nights of enjoying the hazy sky and the wildlife before we arrive back to the “normal” world.
- Alex
laline96@gmail.com
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Ketch us if you Kan
Falken is soon to carry on our preferred route of South, back to (hopefully) warmer climates. We’re all excited to set off and see more of this wild landscape as we head down to Victoria. A thermal trough over Vancouver combined with an offshore high pressure creating funneling NW’ly winds means it is due to be pretty fruity on the 9th. This passage is just under 600 miles, relatively short for Falken, but I’m sure we’ll be kept entertained with dramatic scenery, wildlife and weather!
Final Blog
Falken and her crew arrived safely into port last night around 8pm boat time, 10pm Prince Rupert time. Some spicy weather was anticipated, but luckily the 35kt gusts and 2.5 meter waves were no match for this expert crew. We had an exceptionally smooth docking, despite it being Alex's first time parking this year (!). We all agreed that this was a very special group of people—I for one am so impressed with how everyone stayed so positive, helpful, and appreciative of humor despite an arguably challenging passage. We'll all return home significantly saltier than we were when we left, a mark of a passage properly sailed.
Lessons and a Gift
The biggest lesson is the helm. The lesson here is that even if you don't think you can do it over and over again with no sleep, cold and damp, it has to be done and so it can be done. Flying fish are cool, dolphins are really really cool, but the coolest of them all are the whales. And most of all Alex: "Find your center Carla. Always know where your center is so you can come back to it". He means the helm but it applies to life as well.