Fresh baked bread!
April 22, 2025 | Light wind
Last night gave us some wonderful light winds sailing on a relatively flat sea that allowed the whole crew to catch up on much-needed sleep after the excitement of the night previous. There’s nothing like a nighttime kite drop followed by an engine fire alarm to keep everyone alert and full of adrenaline, and after reconciling all issues, it was a huge relief to go from the ridiculous to the sublime.
A very hot day followed, but with a little more wind than forecast, and it was shortly after dark this evening that we finally had to accept the wind shift and resort to the iron sail (engine) once more.
Dinner tonight was a combined effort with freshly baked bread courtesy of Scott, a delicious hummus from Hilary, and a couscous salad to utilize all of the remaining fresh salad vegetables. Add to this the charcuterie that we have saved until the last, and the deck was full of scrumptious delights.
As I type this, we are motor sailing a direct course to Hiva Oa and we have a little more wind forecast for tomorrow, so hopefully we can sail the final distance to make landfall. In the meantime, the night hours are a welcome relief from the punishing heat of the day, and we even treat ourselves to the odd hot drink to while away the hours on the helm.
Less than 200nm...
Emily
EmilyCaruso
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.