Day 3 at sea
32º 10.4’N, 001º 51.7’W
14.25 local time
32º 10.4’N / 001º 51.7’W
We have now been underway for 3 days and before departing, we thought we would be close to the Canaries by now. As we mentioned before, the weather has been very interesting with more wind on the nose than we could have imagined. Upwind sailing normally has a negative clang to it, but for us, the wind has been just strong enough, and the swell small enough, that we have had some amazing sailing.
We departed Lagos a day earlier than planned, knowing it may take a bit extra time to get south. We have time and it doesn’t really matter that we are at times pointing towards Newfoundland, and on the next tack towards Morocco. To put it in perspective, the passage is just under 650 nm on the rhumb line (the straight line between Lagos and Las Palmas). FALKEN can easily sail 200 nm per day if we have a good breeze on the beam or behind, and the passage would take just over 3 days. We’ll see how long it will take us, and how many miles we will have been sailing.
Last night was another beautiful night. The clouds disappeared after dinner and we had a crystal clear night full of stars. The wind was on the beam and FALKEN was like a magic carpet flying along. When I got up on my watch at 0800 this morning, the wind was lighter, and we lasted about an hour until we had to get the motor on. When we were down under 3 kts of speed and the swell started to kick us around, it was time to roll up the yankee and turn the engine on. According to the GRIBs, it should be filling in sometime this afternoon.
We were hoping for another swim in the ocean as the wind died, but the swell is a bit too big so we opted for the second best, a warm shower on the aft deck. I will start cooking dinner in about two hours; we have been eating at 1730 to have dinner before the sun sets. It is getting warmer as we are heading south and I am in shorts and t-shirt for the first time since leaving Portugal. Life is good onboard :)
Cheers from Mia and the FALKEN Crew
mia@59-north.com
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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.
Making the most of it
This passage has thrown pretty much every atmospheric condition imaginable at us. It reminds us not only of how much we’ve learned, but of how far we’ve literally come since that acceleration zone off the northwest corner of Oahu. The resilience this group has shown has been nothing short of incredible, and I couldn’t be prouder to be part of it. Maybe that’s why it’s the hardest passages we remember the most. Not because they were easy, but because they reminded us what we’re capable of.
