Day 4
With 223 nm sailed in the last 24 hours, sailing has been fun and exciting. FALKEN is powered up nicely, and the crew are doing an amazing job helming, keeping her as if she were sailing on rails. Sailors often have their ways to mimic that sensation of the boat flying through the waves, underlined by their eyes brightening up in excitement. I am sure that these days spent together on FALKEN will be referred to under those terms more than once.
But sailing is not just all fun and games, and crossing an ocean can be a serious challenge—be it technical or personal. Changing your sleep patterns to accommodate a watch system, being in a new environment with new people, sleeping on a constantly moving bed in a noisy environment, sometimes dealing with seasickness, and continuing to be ready on the hour for a new watch, watch after watch. It’s no easy feat. And it is always beautiful to witness how people deal with these challenges, most often building strong bonds, looking out for and caring for each other.
By now, everyone seems to have taken their bearings in this strange environment, redefining a new comfort zone. This change of perspective can bring great insight into one’s life. And this, on its own, can give meaning to the whole experience and to the challenge.
- Manot
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Turning the corner
Yesterday found Falken on a Northward course, still heeled to port, climbing and falling over waves. Sunrise this morning found Falken in an entirely different condition, one familiar to her, but not yet to the current crew. And then a truly magic moment, a pod of dolphins at least fifty members strong came to dance on Falken’s bow wave. We are now joyfully headed northeast, on course toward our eventual destination of Prince Rupert. Falken has turned a corner.
Onwards and upwards
Today is set to be the calmest day of our trip so far, waves subdued, wind veering off more south-east, light clouds. What an exhilarating ride it has been, beating upwind non-stop directly north for 6 straight days! What ahead of us is a mostly downwind sail to Prince Rupert, but a very exciting one. This makes it an interesting few days going fast and closely watching the weather, and I’m very much looking forward to it. The crew is happy, everyone seems to be getting good rest, enjoying watches and time in between.
Quadruple digits!
We are still headed north away from Hawaii, though today we have started to veer ever so slightly east. Speaking of miles, we hit quadruple digits today and are currently 1051 nms into our journey to Alaska. The sea state continues to calm down, and the famous North Pacific high is just out of our reach. The next few days will be a delicate dance of riding the outskirts of the high while avoiding the pesky low pressure systems that are dancing nearby. In his very wise words, we need to get north but not too far north, stay south but not too far south, continue heading east but not too far east, and avoid going west but also stay west.