Day 5
May 30, 2024
We are sailing on the edge of a high pressure system. On my morning watch, we shook all reefs and hoisted the staysail. Beam reaching under full mainsail, Yankee, and staysail, FALKEN was cruising along at 9, 10, sometimes 11 knots. In the late afternoon, the wind veered to a southwesterly Force 4 to 5, and we dropped the staysail, eased the sheets, and continued on a broad reach. It has been very pleasant sailing all day, and we crossed our halfway mark to Horta today—950 nm to go.
It looks like we found some favorable current as well, as our speed through the water is constantly about 1.5 knots slower than our SOG (speed over ground). As darkness fell, the wind veered further and it was time to set the pole, bring the Yankee to windward, and we are now sailing wing on wing. We might have to gybe in the early morning hours to maintain our course, but for now all is set.
The next few days will be interesting as we transition from the high pressure system into a low pressure with very light and shifty winds, plus rain and squalls in between.
Fair winds and a following sea,
Chris
ChrisKobusch
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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.
Golden Day
The Pacific is giving us “the shimmer” - with a still flat sea seven hours out of San Francisco Bay, we’re motoring south along the shipping channel, with an hour to go to what teases now as a stunning sunset against wispy clouds. Throughout this first day of Falken 11 the sails have unfurled and been furled again as skipper Alex tries to fill them a meager breeze indeed. We’ve seen a few whales traveling along the route, and an otter that was sadly just a buoy. It’s the first open ocean sail for many of us and it’s a thrill to anticipate all the new experiences we’ll have.
Seasickness
But maybe, I thought, with some drugs I could stay ahead of it. The first 48 hours I felt horrible. But luckily with 3 health care professionals on board and in a very encouraging environment, my body found its way. Anyway, someone offered me a patch (unavailable in Canada) and someone else gave me some pills for nausea and now I feel much, much better.