Hello Victoria! Arrival Day...
Monday, August 11, 2025, 09:30 Local time | Victoria, BC
Hello Victoria! So to look back… We had all sorts of conditions on this trip. We motored through narrow fjord-like passages and gazed upon the remotest of remote landscapes. We sailed in thermal breezes, cutting through dead flat seawater like a knife through butter, upwind in 15 knots. Wow, does Falken love that. We dropped the hook in the most WILD anchorage off Brooks Peninsula and experienced true, natural silence. How rare in our busy world.
After dropping the hook and 48 hours of sailing, the team pumped up the dinghy, headed to shore, hiked half an hour, and emerged from the lush Pacific Northwest rainforest to just the most incredible beach you have ever seen. Just us, and the Pacific Ocean. Of course, we went for a swim. And then, back to sea for a final hoorah—25-35 knots downwind for our last leg. It was when the fog lifted and the moon rose on our starboard bow, shining through the way home, that we realized… Wow… this is special. Yes, what we get to experience here really is special.
We agreed at the beginning of this trip that our priorities would be to be safe, have fun, learn, and get WILD—in that order. And, from the reflection last night that we shared as a team, I’m happy to share that we achieved the mission! More coastal trips like this have a way of igniting dreams, because they are closer perhaps to a lifestyle of a cruiser. It was wonderful to hear that so many of the crew are asking themselves the question that of course we want everyone to ask… ‘Do I want sailing to be a significant part of my life?’
Once again, this 59 North trip ends with new friends, freshly acquired wisdom, and a broader horizon for us all.
- Nikki | FALKEN Skipper
NikkiHenderson
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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.