1748 UTS| 16’47’52S 15’10’05W
ANCHORED
The coconut nut, is a really big nut. This little known fact was floating around the ships’ company’s brains during a well deserved rest, from the previous days activities, when around 0540 the stirring began. Jude was the first one up, on point for coffee patrol, leaving a cup and a note, specifically for Mary, while Mary and Phoebe prepared the boat. Pulling up the anchor from the muddy bottom made quite the mess on the bow—and much effort was made to clean it off. It was a great core workout but in the end a bit silly, as once the boat made the break for open water, the swells would have easily washed the deck of all the mud.
Falken left anchor shortly after 0600, motored clockwise from 9 o’clock anchor around to the east pass at the 3 o’clock, with an amazing sunrise and terrific breeze. More coffee was brewed. More coffee consumed. At the east part of Taha’a, approximately N 16 39 W 151 25.6 the head jib was unfurled and Maddie expertly navigated a somewhat tight pass with reefs on both sides. Once the sails were tight and trimmed, we had consistent 18-22kt wind out of ~030, with 9-10kts over the ground on an easterly course. Falken heeled over quite a bit to starboard and it was a quick ~2 hours journey to Huahine-Iti with great conversation and leaving many cats in the dust. It was really peculiar and quite a blast to feel the heavier load on the rudder with the wind. Leading the swells while feeling the wind made it a bit of sport trying to keep the boat energized and not let it fall off either direction.
We motored ~3nm south around the west part of Huahine to Ha’apu and dropped anchor in ~20m of water, with a very nice breeze. Halyard swinging occurred with closest to hitting the boat award going to Nick, who got a many “drop!” screams from the observers. Again, the water visibility is absolutely amazing.
Nick, Andreea, Phoebe, Kate all rented scooters and motored around the southern part of the island, finding empty beaches in very quiet villages. Brian, Marie, Jude, and Ryan called a restaurant, Vaihai Sunset Grill, 5.5mi south, who came and picked them up for beverages and dinner. A scooter and dog were almost hit along the way—there are few traffic rules on Huahine. Mary, the responsible Skipper, had to spend hours working on the water maker, attempting to clean the membranes. She and Maddie remained aboard Falken for a quiet evening without all us “rabble”, as Mary might say. The scooter gang joined the rest at the restaurant and a beautiful sunset and terrific dinner was had. The only glum of the day was after the sundown, a vicious attack of mosquitoes occurred. Jude got hit the worst. But Kate was the hero of the evening by having 100% DDT on hand. We lathered the terrible chemical on us—but it quickly deterred further attacks.
We (Sullivans) may still owe Nat some money, who spotted us for dinner—which paying for was quite the debacle. We “taxiiied” and scootered back to Ha’apu, and I, Brian, got Mary with quite the scare by creeping into the water like a crocodile, waiting to pounce after she reached the dock. Lights were out by 2030-2100 and it’s now 0731 on 5/24/2026. Everyone’s been up since 0600.
// Brian “Mr. Bean” Sullivan
Brian Sullivan
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.