08.45 Local Time | Hjellestad, Norway
At the dock
The crew on the women’s sail training on Isbjorn is settling into a great routine for managing the boat and life onboard. We left Bergen practicing leaving a crowded dock in a busy harbor. We raised the main and sailed west toward Knarrvika. We tacked south with one reef in the main and two in the Genoa. We started to come together as a working crew with lots of controlled tacks. We had periods of sun and low wind and then higher wind and rain. Typical for Norway :)
We spent the night near Hjellestad. More great practice setting dock lines. We sighted a helicopter training exercise in the Raunefjorden. Amazing skills!!
Michele Charriez
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Final Blog
Falken and her crew arrived safely into port last night around 8pm boat time, 10pm Prince Rupert time. Some spicy weather was anticipated, but luckily the 35kt gusts and 2.5 meter waves were no match for this expert crew. We had an exceptionally smooth docking, despite it being Alex's first time parking this year (!). We all agreed that this was a very special group of people—I for one am so impressed with how everyone stayed so positive, helpful, and appreciative of humor despite an arguably challenging passage. We'll all return home significantly saltier than we were when we left, a mark of a passage properly sailed.
Lessons and a Gift
The biggest lesson is the helm. The lesson here is that even if you don't think you can do it over and over again with no sleep, cold and damp, it has to be done and so it can be done. Flying fish are cool, dolphins are really really cool, but the coolest of them all are the whales. And most of all Alex: "Find your center Carla. Always know where your center is so you can come back to it". He means the helm but it applies to life as well.
Making the most of it
This passage has thrown pretty much every atmospheric condition imaginable at us. It reminds us not only of how much we’ve learned, but of how far we’ve literally come since that acceleration zone off the northwest corner of Oahu. The resilience this group has shown has been nothing short of incredible, and I couldn’t be prouder to be part of it. Maybe that’s why it’s the hardest passages we remember the most. Not because they were easy, but because they reminded us what we’re capable of.
