LIFE ON A HEEL
Day 2 of life on a heel and the crew are getting more used to it. The sea state—or the helming—has improved, and the number of times you get body slammed while trying to sleep has reduced, making it much more tolerable. However, I speak on behalf of all the staff when I say cooking at this angle sucks an incredible amount, and watch handovers between us usually involve some grumbling about upwind sailing.
Moaning aside, it is lovely. We’re sitting comfortably at 8-10 knots, and what have been termed “happy” clouds (fluffy and white) are the only things that occasionally block our nighttime views of the Milky Way. With the Southern Cross behind us and Polaris directly on the bow, we’re also fairly confident we’re going in the right direction. All things going smoothly, we should be reaching Oahu sometime on Sunday afternoon.
Glums and glows today were characterized by an appreciation of savoring the limited time we have left at sea—only one more sunset now! As always, there is an excitement about nearing land after a longer passage. Orie’s vivid description of a beef burger he once had (with accompanying photos) seems to have fueled several crew members’ dreams of them. A crisp apple and long, hot showers have been mentioned with longing more than once.
It can be quite easy to wish away the last bit of time at sea with those creature comforts to look forward to. I’m pleased to report that is not the case with this crew, and the day has been filled with smiles, punctuated by cackles from the helm as they send a particularly soggy wave over the cockpit.
373 miles to go!
- Mary | FALKEN Mate
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- Mia (shore support)
FALKEN|Skipper&Mate
View more passage logs
”For some things, we will never be ready.” - Moana 2
After 852 miles of open ocean sailing, the crew of Falken dropped anchor in Moorea's Cook's Bay—not with a quiet glide in, but surfing down waves in a squall, breaking speed records and cheering each other on through the rain. What started as a plan to "just dip a toe" into offshore sailing turned into something harder to explain: the worse the conditions got, the more alive everyone felt. Turns out the question was never whether the crew was ready—it was whether they even needed to be.
Kauehi conundrum
Kauehi atoll was always on the itinerary—until the forecast made it a gamble not worth taking. Squalls, bommies, a tidal pass, and no clean escape route: sometimes the hardest call in sailing is the one that keeps you out of a place, not in it. The Tuamotus will have to wait.
Hove-to!
Falken is too fast—a problem most sailors would kill for, yet here we are, tacking back and forth across the Pacific just to kill time. A rogue low pressure system south of Tahiti has stolen the trades and scrambled our timing for the tidal window into Kauehi's pass, leaving us hove-to 45 miles short of our target in the Tuamotus. Salt licorice, dream sandwich debates, and a philosophical question about mermaid reproduction are helping pass the night.