existing in the moment
What a spectacular day despite a lack of wind. Mia took some time with the crew earlier this afternoon to just sail slowly for a moment on a flat sea under a vast expanse of blue sky and sunshine. A plethora of wildlife delighted everyone, and whilst I was catching up on precious sleep, I was a little envious to have missed a moment undisturbed by notions of time and distance. It’s wonderful when you have the opportunity to simply exist in the moment.
We have shifted our course slightly west while still motoring to better place ourselves ahead of the wind filling in from the northeast. Hopefully, we can gain a little more apparent wind by then, sailing south and maintaining our angle as it continues to veer.
I was chatting with the crew earlier about routing software and how it sometimes takes the fun and challenge out of hatching a plan and seeing it come to fruition—or not, as is the case sometimes. It was suggested that technology could be used to validate rather than dictate. I’m on the fence with that one, with plenty of time ahead to overthink it.
Back to the velvet sky of stars as the night draws in…
/ Emily
EmilyCaruso
View more passage logs
”For some things, we will never be ready.” - Moana 2
After 852 miles of open ocean sailing, the crew of Falken dropped anchor in Moorea's Cook's Bay—not with a quiet glide in, but surfing down waves in a squall, breaking speed records and cheering each other on through the rain. What started as a plan to "just dip a toe" into offshore sailing turned into something harder to explain: the worse the conditions got, the more alive everyone felt. Turns out the question was never whether the crew was ready—it was whether they even needed to be.
Kauehi conundrum
Kauehi atoll was always on the itinerary—until the forecast made it a gamble not worth taking. Squalls, bommies, a tidal pass, and no clean escape route: sometimes the hardest call in sailing is the one that keeps you out of a place, not in it. The Tuamotus will have to wait.
Hove-to!
Falken is too fast—a problem most sailors would kill for, yet here we are, tacking back and forth across the Pacific just to kill time. A rogue low pressure system south of Tahiti has stolen the trades and scrambled our timing for the tidal window into Kauehi's pass, leaving us hove-to 45 miles short of our target in the Tuamotus. Salt licorice, dream sandwich debates, and a philosophical question about mermaid reproduction are helping pass the night.