existing in the moment
January 8, 2025, 21:45 UTC | 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
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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.