Sunday, June 15, 2025 | Kiribati and Rum Punch
Collectively, we misplaced most of Saturday. Arriving in Kiribati on Saturday, ship’s time, we were faced with the disconcerting conundrum of sailing directly into Sunday, Kiribati time, owing to a largish hemorrhoid in the international dateline and a cozy bro-mance between Australia and the Line Islands.
Landfall was grey with low, tumbling clouds, soft seas, and brief bits of sunlight sneaking through the haze. We spotted land around 7:30, first as a fuzz on the horizon which gave way to breaking waves, then palm fronds, and finally the island itself, which ekes its way out of the water at around 12 feet above sea level.
As we anchored, a delegation of the local Sea Turtle Committee On Welcoming Things paid a visit. This mostly involved one of us spotting a bit of turtle snout above water and shouting, "Turtle!" Then the rest of the crew would shout, "Where?!" followed by, "Over there!" by which time the turtle in question had bobbed off to munch some grass elsewhere.
The rest of the day was gloriously filled with the absence of responsibility or changing watches. There were naps, swims, showers, extra credit naps, the inaugural meeting of the Fantasy Romance book club led by our High Lord Adam, Monopoly Deal, fajitas, rum punch, and then, at long last, a full night’s sleep. Indeed, glorious.
We went ashore the next day (either Sunday or Wednesday, we still aren’t sure). Alex, Adam, and Mary spent the entire day trying to track down the customs officer to check us in, which ended with them at the guy’s house talking to his daughters, who variously insisted he was back at the wharf, still at the airport, and actually here in the house had they looked a little harder.
Meanwhile, the crew was dropped at the Lagoon View Resort to get a "guided" "tour" of the island. As we don’t speak Kiribati and it wasn’t apparent if our guide spoke English or Kiribati, a fair amount of gesticulating and arm waving on Tara’s part got us moving towards… well, something. Stacy described it as "Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride meets It’s a Small World After All." We jostled down the rutted tracks between London and Banana, visiting the bustling (empty) airport, salt flats, and beaches. At each turn we waved to the multitude of children just getting out of school who all seemed delighted to see us.
We had lunch at a small restaurant and then went back to the resort to hang out and wait for dinner. Stacy and Orie made friends with a beach dog, Tara tried to steal the neighbor’s motorcycle, and we all enjoyed a few minutes of wifi to check in with friends and family.
We had a great dinner with some of the other guests at the resort, plus the "elders" who turned out to be considerably less elderly than expected and decidedly more Mormon. It was great to spend a meal with new folks and hear about the experiences of the young missionaries living in a part of the world many of them likely didn’t know existed until they received their assignments. It was a clear sign that we needed another good night’s sleep when the most contentious debate we’ve yet had came up—when does nodding off become a doze become a nap become a sleep? Adam Baker has some very detailed opinions on this, it turns out.
Today, we rested a bit more and are prepping the boat to depart, hopefully around 1630. While Adam Baker has strong opinions on the appropriate length of naps, he also noted that "the first third of a trip takes two-thirds of the time, the last two thirds of the trip takes about one-eighth the time." Looking towards the next leg of our adventure, I find he’s absolutely correct.
Jake Davies
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Ketch us if you Kan
Falken is soon to carry on our preferred route of South, back to (hopefully) warmer climates. We’re all excited to set off and see more of this wild landscape as we head down to Victoria. A thermal trough over Vancouver combined with an offshore high pressure creating funneling NW’ly winds means it is due to be pretty fruity on the 9th. This passage is just under 600 miles, relatively short for Falken, but I’m sure we’ll be kept entertained with dramatic scenery, wildlife and weather!
Final Blog
Falken and her crew arrived safely into port last night around 8pm boat time, 10pm Prince Rupert time. Some spicy weather was anticipated, but luckily the 35kt gusts and 2.5 meter waves were no match for this expert crew. We had an exceptionally smooth docking, despite it being Alex's first time parking this year (!). We all agreed that this was a very special group of people—I for one am so impressed with how everyone stayed so positive, helpful, and appreciative of humor despite an arguably challenging passage. We'll all return home significantly saltier than we were when we left, a mark of a passage properly sailed.
Lessons and a Gift
The biggest lesson is the helm. The lesson here is that even if you don't think you can do it over and over again with no sleep, cold and damp, it has to be done and so it can be done. Flying fish are cool, dolphins are really really cool, but the coolest of them all are the whales. And most of all Alex: "Find your center Carla. Always know where your center is so you can come back to it". He means the helm but it applies to life as well.