Next stop…
Latitude: 07°23.7'S, Longitude: 153°41.2'W
Sunday, June 11, 2025 | 09:55 Boat Time | 19:55 UTC
Pos. 07°23.7S 153°41.2W
Last night I came on watch and, for once, there wasn’t a single squall in sight. The engine was on, the moon was shining, and a light breeze was present. We decided at that point to turn the engine off and try to sail with the little breeze there was. FALKEN started gliding silently into the night at a speed of 3 knots, but with barely any sea state to throw her around, it was like being in space for a while. The wind gods must have appreciated our efforts, as only 30 minutes later the wind picked up and FALKEN followed it like a bird.
I’ve just woken up for my day watch. The sun is shining, there is a good 15-knot breeze, and FALKEN is powering along at 9-10 knots. We’re officially in the trade winds, and it feels good, because at one point our ETA was 215 days and 3 hours.
Yesterday we made the decision to aim for Christmas Island instead of Palmyra Atoll. The reasoning for this is our timeline and how aiming for Palmyra would put us against the trade winds—not ideal. It also means a bit more time for us to explore one place and a more comfortable ride to the Hawaiian Islands.
It’s still hard to realize in what part of the world we’re sailing. I keep transporting myself back to the Polynesian people sailing from island to island like we go to the supermarket, and it makes me wonder what incredible navigators and full-round adventurers and sailors they were.
Our ETA to Christmas Island should be some point between Saturday and Sunday. Expect no connection, and we’re going to keep our watch on boat time, as otherwise we will lose a day to the timeline. We will explain on another blog, but for now, looking forward to dropping the anchor in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Lots of love,
Alex
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Mia (shore support)
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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.