February 17, 2025 | Sailing or Snowboarding?
Good day from the beautiful clear blue Caribbean Sea! We had a lot of fun surfing Falken down long ocean swells today. It feels similar to snowboarding but on water instead of snow—an adrenaline rush for sure! Our top speed was about 14 knots while surfing down a swell. As crew, we are learning how to keep the boat on a mostly straight course instead of only back and forth. The boat takes longer to respond than a car when turning, so it’s a new skill for us. One of the crew likens it to off-roading in sand.
Yesterday we had freshwater showers sitting on the back of Falken, watching the blue waters of the Caribbean flow by behind us with Falken traveling at 10 knots (about 18.5 km/hr).
Last night we enjoyed patches of bright glowing water. The glowing is caused by bioluminescence—a type of plankton, I believe. The food has been delicious, the highlight being an olive and sea salt focaccia bread made by Manot today. It was devoured rapidly.
- Janelle, crew on the Falken
FALKENCrew
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People Get Ready!
The last three days have been an intense (and intensely hot) period of discovery, practice, and planning. Because Adrienne II is not a 59N boat, there's been some extra setup and coordination needed including rigging all the sails that were out for repairs before we arrived. Its been a blast working alongside the 59N team getting to help them work things out on a less familiar boat in real time. Tomorrow morning we'll run through our Person Over Board training as the final pre-departure task, cast off and head out. Can't know all that it will be, but its going to be a great adventure out in the vast world with some pretty fantastic people.
Among the Channel Islands
In the wind shadow of SoCal we had a restful night with calm conditions ghosting through smooth seas. We’re getting ourselves in position for spicy weather tonight once we round Cape Conception, the seas build and the breeze freshens. It will be an upwind sail into an acceleration zone along a formable coast with few bailout points, Morro Bay being one. The crew is really gelling with lots of smiles and laughter on deck. Monterey is in our sights!
Day Two Delights
The seas were completely glassy with a gentle swell as we approached San Clemente Island, the southernmost of the Channel Islands. Everyone jumped in and marvelled at the lovely temperature and crystal clear, indigo-colored water. Before long the wind started to pick up, and we happily unfurled the jib and were sailing again. The afternoon has been gorgeous, cruising along at 5-6 kts, close hauled on a port tack in a gentle breeze, Catalina Island in the distance on our starboard side, and everyone is happy.