Made it to Dover
September 6, 2024, 19:00 UTC | Thunder in the English Channel
We spent a day in Dover dodging intense thunder on the English Channel. We walked up the white cliffs to see Dover Castle, dating back to the 1100s, a Roman lighthouse, and WWII tunnels from where they controlled Operation Dynamo, saving hundreds of thousands of soldiers from Dunkirk.
More thunder is on its way. When departing Dover today at noon, we had a 24-hour weather window in which we would try to make some headway. Our next port of call is Weymouth. Going to Guernsey was sadly not an option anymore due to the angry weather systems on approach.
I am very thankful for meeting all my new friends onboard Falken. We have become our own small family, and I am so happy to see them every day. The days are running away from us, and we are making the most of the time we still have together.
Love,
David the apprentice
59ºNorthApprentice
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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.