Day 4 at-sea
We are all now falling into the regular routine of life at sea—the times of our different watches, the writing up of the hourly log, and the drinking of coffee. On this trip, there has been a lot of coffee drinking. Everyone’s appetites have improved as we have found our sea legs, and we all want it to carry on for longer.
We had another perfect sailing night followed by a spectacular sunrise, helped by the Sahara dust brought in by the easterly wind. At 1146 UTC, we passed our 600 NM point on the trip with just 170 NM to go, so we hope to arrive at about midday tomorrow.
Skipper Alex has positioned us to the east of Lanzarote to take advantage of the southeast wind, which will push us towards Las Palmas and our end destination. We started the day broad reaching with easterly wind, then at about 1330 the wind veered to the southeast and we hauled in the sails to a close reach. Sailing along smoothly at 8–9 knots. What a fabulous ride.
Jojo
JoJoPickering
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”For some things, we will never be ready.” - Moana 2
After 852 miles of open ocean sailing, the crew of Falken dropped anchor in Moorea's Cook's Bay—not with a quiet glide in, but surfing down waves in a squall, breaking speed records and cheering each other on through the rain. What started as a plan to "just dip a toe" into offshore sailing turned into something harder to explain: the worse the conditions got, the more alive everyone felt. Turns out the question was never whether the crew was ready—it was whether they even needed to be.
Kauehi conundrum
Kauehi atoll was always on the itinerary—until the forecast made it a gamble not worth taking. Squalls, bommies, a tidal pass, and no clean escape route: sometimes the hardest call in sailing is the one that keeps you out of a place, not in it. The Tuamotus will have to wait.
Hove-to!
Falken is too fast—a problem most sailors would kill for, yet here we are, tacking back and forth across the Pacific just to kill time. A rogue low pressure system south of Tahiti has stolen the trades and scrambled our timing for the tidal window into Kauehi's pass, leaving us hove-to 45 miles short of our target in the Tuamotus. Salt licorice, dream sandwich debates, and a philosophical question about mermaid reproduction are helping pass the night.