First squall of the trip!
0454 UTC | 03 26.44’S 148 52.25’W
Sailing
Our wisest and spryest member on the group, Jim, has a message for his wife in today’s blog! This morning we got our first squall of the trip. An uncommonly swift watch changeover was had just before sunrise this morning, I thought maybe they just want to get to bed - until making it on deck to Jim’s opening remark of ’We’re gonna get our ass whooped’.
Instead of a glorious sunrise to greet us, a big ol stretch of dark cloud with no horizon visible was approaching us. We had been motoring for a couple of hours at this point so whilst I didn’t relish the thought of the downpour, happily for us it also marked the start of a breeze line and we’ve been sailing semi the right direction since. Jim, Joey and Kip - a.k.a. Sea Section/NotTea/The Reefers (their watch name changes daily) - worked quickly to get some reefs in the main, had just about time to pop on a waterproof jacket and hurriedly close all our hatches before the heavens opened. This lasted a couple of hours until the breeze settled and the sun came out, the slumbering crew below blissfully unaware of the action until they saw our soggy coats hanging to dry.
The ITCZ (doldrums) is proving to be quite a large area at the time of our crossing, we’re gearing up for 3-4 days of motoring unfortunately, so we’re eking the most out of the wind we have now. We do know we’re considerably further east that Hawaii, don’t worry we’re not shooting for Alaska quite yet - we’re simply setting ourselves up to not be close hauled when we hit the north east trade winds, currently aiming for a reasonable 60-70AWA!
Neptune is set to visit us soon, a message in a bottle from him was found floating behind the boat at happy hour today. Phoebe and I are the only shellbacks on board at the moment, so it’ll be a busy equator ceremony with 9 pollywogs to initiate!
Joey’s birthday is tomorrow, after some initial upset that we wouldn’t make it to the equator on his birthday, we’ve now reasoned that what better way to start off your 4th decade than crossing the equator the day after!!
Many glows (horizon to horizon stars, the end of the sea sickness, lovely company, awful jokes etc), few glums.
Enough waffle from me, here’s Jim:
"Hi Babe! Well you were right!! There is water to the left,right,behind and forward and it’s beautiful! The first few days of warm windy sailing were interrupted with a little bit of calm and then wow, we encountered a nice rain storm this morning. In a dash below decks for rain gear, before the downpour, netted only the rain jacket. The rain boots and pants remained safe and dry in duffels :) But it was a blast helming in the rain and the scene of the approaching cloud, the rain and the sun trying to peek up through the clouds was awesome. Pants and shoes soaked, wiping the rain droplets from the compass and taking in some much appreciated coolness from the wet breeze. Yep! Water everywhere Darling, just like you said. Please give the grandkids a hug for me and tell’um Grandpa Jim is sailing with some very nice folks and having fun. Blog is just like the radio telephone on Powell Babe: sooo Love, Jim"
Mary
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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.