Lectures and food
03:00UTC | Marina Flamingo
In-Port
I’m in my bunk, listening to my favourite tunes while the crew are on deck or in their bunks, some texting home, some reading, there’s that feeling of a big trip in the air, and it’s no wonder, tomorrow we set off to the Galápagos.
Today was briefing after briefing. We talked through all the safety equipment onboard, ran a man overboard drill, checked the engine, and after lunch ashore we sat in an aircon room for a weather brief while going through how to put a passage plan together. Big thumbs up to the crew for listening to my voice for that long.
After a delicious and fun dinner ashore, everyone’s gone into their own little bubble, that one where nerves mix with excitement and you can feel the start of the trip getting closer.
After many trips as skipper, I’ve realised this feeling never really goes away. The thoughts of making sure we’ve got everything, that little voice saying maybe we’ve missed something, or if we’ve covered everything before departure. I used to hate it, being on edge right up until we left.
Now I kind of embrace it, it keeps me grounded, keeps me aware.
And it makes that moment even sweeter, when the sails go up, the course is set, and the engine goes off, then it’s just us and the open ocean.
My happy place.
Alex Laline
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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.