Final Day At Sea
September 9, 2024, 06:10 UTC | Approaching Plymouth
The weather has been extremely fickle around the British Isles this past week, making this an exceptionally challenging passage to plan for. We have been through plans A, B, C, D… trying to find the best ‘next port of call’. Not really sure how far down the alphabet we are at this point. But quite unexpectedly, these alternative routes have made it possible to tick off several bucket-list items for the crew: sailing into London, passing by the White Cliffs of Dover, and a close-up view of the iconic Needles right off the western tip of the Isle of Wight.
For me, this dynamic is one of the real beauties of sailing; you never really know what you will get when you cast off. It has all been possible, however, thanks to the amazing crew onboard, always keeping the mood up. I’m now sitting here half asleep at the chart table, hearing chatter and laughter from the cockpit. And then, “dolphins!” Doesn’t get much better!
Now we are approaching our final destination, Plymouth, where FALKEN will get some TLC over the next couple of weeks. A huge thank you to the fantastic crew and to our awesome FALKEN. I’ve had a blast!
O’hoy—Erik Nordborg
ErikNordborg
View more passage logs
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.