21.30 LOCAL TIME | Cooks Bay, Moorea
Anchored
Landfall in Moorea! After 852 miles of North Atlantic - err, scratch that - South Pacific sailing we are at anchor in Cook’s Bay. Fittingly, our final miles were covered while surfing down waves in a squall. With most of the crew and staff on deck cheering each other on as we attempted to break our own records. Congrats to this trip’s “18 & Over” club: Jesse at 18.7 kts and Steve at 18.1 kts (don’t forget the 0.1, Mary). What a fun final day of sailing.
With the sailing component of this trip largely in the books, for whatever reason I am left reflecting on what I expected this trip would be like and what I experienced.
So many cool things jump out right away. The quick jump to quiet Ou Pua, sailing at night for the first time, brilliant stars and seeing constellations pop out of the night sky, awesome bioluminescence appearing everywhere as we carved through waves. And getting to share all of this on watch with my wife, Jenn.
I picked this passage because I thought we’d have relatively calm conditions and get to see some off the beaten path places. Just dip a toe into offshore sailing. As the trip appraoched, I kept thinking about how I wasn’t ready to do this. What if the weather was more than I could handle? What if I got sick? What if I hated this? What if Jenn hated this? (Or even worse, what if I hated this and Jenn loved it!).
What I found was that I felt most alive when there was more wind, more wave, more rain. Surfing down waves a little bit out of control. Even cooler, though, was looking back at the helm to see Jenn’s shit-eating grin as she pushed FALKEN to try to set the family speed record (no comment on whether she succeeded).
Was I ready for this trip? No. (Was I ready for the garden gnome story? Hell, no!) But with this awesome staff, this amazing crew and this kick ass boat…who needs to be.
Frank F.
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No Kitemares Today
After a night marked by sudden wind accelerations peeling off Point Conception, and a vibrant, pulsating sky blistered with shooting stars, the off-watch woke to commotion on the foredeck. The wind had gone light and the swell had tapered just enough to raise the spinnaker. The sail filled with an urgent pop, the sheet strained and Falken charged down the face of the next wave. By mid-day, we doused the spinnaker and set our minds to the more precise task of safely punching through a gap in the notorious Cortez Bank. The border to Mexico looms ahead.
The California coast
We had a very lively first day of sailing with steady winds between 25 and 30 kn gusting to mid 30s. All of the crew got experience at difficult downwind helming as we covered 200 nautical miles in the first 24 hours. This morning brings winds in the teens and calmer seas. The sun is still shining, and the green monster has been slayed by those afflicted!
Farewell by dolphins
We headed out of the marina in Monterey CA at about 10AM in sunny weather to meet winds of ~20kts and 3m smooth swell with long periods. FALKEN is surfing along the coast of California, ship’s time 1PM as I write. As we motored out into the bay, we were wished farewell by a pod of dolphins nearby and a couple of whales in the distance. Though, unfortunately one crew member met the green dragon in the swell.
