Fog Blog
0216 UTC | 48°32.5’ N 124°42.1’W
Whale watching
After a day in Victoria learning Falken and passage planning, we departed early this morning for San Francisco. We split into three watches named Watch 1, Watch A, and Watch Uno, so everyone feels appreciated, and are well into a routine of life at sea.
The plan is to motor west down the Straight of Juan de Fuca, and turn left once the wind fills in. It’s been incredibly foggy, as is to be expected in the month of “Fogust,” but when we get a glimpse of the forested mountains beyond the fog it is stunning. We’ve made good use of our time by practicing reefing, watching for whales, and setting up preventer lines for our inevitable down wind sleigh ride.
Most everyone on board has unfortunately began to feel a touch of the green monster. We are motoring in light winds but into an established sea state on the nose. Not the most comfortable conditions for what is the first time offshore for many of our sailors. Mary made the astute observation that despite the seasickness, the sentiment onboard is quite chipper. Everyone is happy to be here, and eager to keep learning. Perhaps once everyone feels a bit better, they’ll accept my pleas to write the daily blog post.
As the youngest of three girls and after 7 years of all girls education, I am loving support and immediate camaraderie of this all women’s trip. I’m excited to watch these women grow in confidence and competence as we sail fast down the coast.
Love to my family xoxo
Delaney
Delaney
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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.
Golden Day
The Pacific is giving us “the shimmer” - with a still flat sea seven hours out of San Francisco Bay, we’re motoring south along the shipping channel, with an hour to go to what teases now as a stunning sunset against wispy clouds. Throughout this first day of Falken 11 the sails have unfurled and been furled again as skipper Alex tries to fill them a meager breeze indeed. We’ve seen a few whales traveling along the route, and an otter that was sadly just a buoy. It’s the first open ocean sail for many of us and it’s a thrill to anticipate all the new experiences we’ll have.
Seasickness
But maybe, I thought, with some drugs I could stay ahead of it. The first 48 hours I felt horrible. But luckily with 3 health care professionals on board and in a very encouraging environment, my body found its way. Anyway, someone offered me a patch (unavailable in Canada) and someone else gave me some pills for nausea and now I feel much, much better.