Doldrums…
0° S, 94° W
April 9, 2125 Ship’s Time | 120 Miles South of Equator, 94º W Longitude
Still Motoring
I cannot imagine what the mood must have been like back in the square-rigger days traversing this part of the world. There is NO wind. Hasn’t been for days, but a frustrating swell has us banging around even though we’re motoring at a smooth 6-7 knots. The sea surface is oily, and while there are rain showers all around us, none have yet come overhead to offer any kind of cooling relief from the baking sun.
We’re only 48 hours into this passage and have made 350 miles of progress, so I can hardly complain. Back in the day, those old ships could sit for WEEKS. With livestock and hundreds of crew and itchy wool clothing and no engines. I cannot imagine the stench that must have emanated from belowdecks. It’s frustrating enough on our modern machine here cruising through another moonlit night, here for fun and not work.
We took two reefs in the main earlier today, both for something to do with our time, and also to stop the incessant slatting of the mainsail. “Shaking pennies out of it,” my friend Paul Exner would say. The old ship captains loathed a calm more than a storm for the wear and tear it put on the ship’s natural canvas sails and hemp rope rigging. It’s not any different today—the firm press of wind in the sails keeps the rig taut, but the banging back and forth in a calm shakes everything loose, least of all your brain cells.
We keep downloading the latest GRIB models looking for wind, and even emailed WRI to ask them their thoughts, but the only answer is patience. The trades are south of us still, and we’ve either got to wait until they push back north again, or just keep on trucking and burning diesel. Speaking of which, we thought we had an issue with the fuel transfer pump earlier today, but it was a false alarm—turns out we were just trying to pump from an empty tank. Oops. We’re down to just over half our remaining fuel already, so these trades better fill in sooner than later.
In other news, we celebrated my dad’s 73rd birthday today! He got a leftover pastry and fresh coffee for breakfast, and was gifted an ice-cold afternoon beer to celebrate. At dinner the whole crew sang to him, and I think he enjoyed his birthday at sea.
As I write, the swell is more annoying than ever, the dampening effect of the mainsail reduced thanks to the reefs, but we can only hope the waves portend a wind somewhere that isn’t too far distant. What else to say…waiting for wind, motor-boating south.
HOLD FAST
// Andy
andy@59-north.com
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A last hurrah
Under the dome of stars in a moon-less sky, each of us during our time at the helm used the most rudimentary celestial navigation, keeping a star or two lined up with the mast as a helper to following the heading range. It was a whole crew event to set the spinnaker, reef the mainsail and practice the heave-to in case of man overboard. Alex stressed that the key to success in all of these crucial activities is preparation. It was hugely satisfying to accomplish these tasks through teamwork. We share a constant good hearted back and forth full of stories, one-liners and comebacks that also means constant laughter.
One little bird!
Falken has almost rounded the Channel Islands and is cruising along splendidly about 100 miles offshore. Though several models predicted some slightly fresher winds today, we were met with a consistent 18-20 kts of pure bliss. It seems that from the moment we left the dock in San Francisco, there has been much laughter and conversation amongst everyone. The plan is to gybe in a few hours and begin our approach to Ensenada. As much as I do appreciate the jokes and intellectual musings, I equally appreciate the natural, silent moments we share at night, all of us on watch gazing up above to the shooting stars, constellations, and planets putting on their quiet show.
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.