north sea action
55º 54’ N 006º 32’ E
August 4, 2024 | 19:22 UTC | 55º 54’ N 006º 32’ E | 9 Knots
We’re in the fat part of the North Sea, west of Denmark, but it feels like we’re in the Trades today. Blue skies, puffy white clouds, and a steady 15-20 knots on the beam. FALKEN is cruising at an easy 9-10 knots on a mostly calm sea. The watch just finished cleaning up from turkey chili dinner ala Capt. Andy, and half the boat is napping with full bellies.
We left Amsterdam on Saturday morning, pulling out of our slip opposite the city centre around 0930 and steaming west down the river toward the locks that separate the below-sea-level city from the North Sea. The transit went quicker than expected, the lock-out was smooth, and before we knew it we had full sail up and were sailing fast to the WNW on a building SW’ly. We’d be in for a tiring night.
The forecast called for a weak cold front to pass over us later that evening, so with the building SW’ly wind we had building clouds and the occasional (very) light shower, but dinner was dry in the cockpit and we kept making our westing to get out past the congestion around numerous traffic separation schemes (TSS) directing shipping in and out of Amsterdam, Brussels, and Rotterdam, three of the busiest ports in Europe. Add in the wind farms and the oil rigs and there wasn’t much relaxing on those first few watches.
The front overtook us just as the sun was going down and the wind abruptly shifted to the NW and quickly built into the low 30s. We already had two reefs in the main, but the new wind called for the staysail, which we hadn’t rigged at the dock, so with some effort the on-watch hanked it on from the pitching foredeck while I steered FALKEN downwind to keep the boat flat, in the process losing the hard-earned westing and pushing us back across a TSS we’d earlier crossed. Oh well. With the boat reefed down we charged NNE, on course for the tip of Denmark some 400 miles distant.
The hard work continued overnight as the wind eased. First, we handed the staysail and re-set the jib, then by Mia’s midnight shift we’d shaken two reefs from the main—only to tuck them back in a few hours later. By dawn, though, the weather behind the front settled in and we were back to full sail, the wind gradually backing into the W and letting us ease the sails for the first time and flatten the boat out. Those who didn’t sleep last night during the commotion got their rest today in the relative peace and quiet.
As I write, we just crossed 280 miles sailed in about 32 hours, quite the clip considering that included our steaming out the river and waiting for the locks to open. The plan as it stands now is to make for Smögen, a pretty seaside fishing village about 30 miles north of our ultimate destination at Marstrand. There we’ll regroup and enjoy some coastal sailing on Sweden’s west (aka ‘best’) coast.
— Andy
andy@59-north.com
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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.