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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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.