Tuesday, June 17, 2025 | Sailing north to Hawaii
Yesterday (still not sure what day of the week that was) started with Alex heading out to Customs and getting us checked out of Kiribati. The crew had more down time—more naps, more reading, more swims, and definitely more showers. Adam walked us through how the steering mechanism works, Mary walked us through weather, and Alex got back in no time. Mary made some delicious soup (in fact, we may be having soup day and night for a few more days with how much we made) and took personal sandwich orders to have dinner ready for our sporty sail that evening. She scoffed at my request to put in ketchup; we have a lot to talk about!
We lifted anchor around 2:30 pm and set sail—full main out at first and quickly down to a double reef as we got out of the lee of the island in 22+ knots of apparent wind. We had some spicy sailing time for a bit—Jake and Adam called it “Cholula hot”—before the winds mellowed down for some “Tabasco level sailing.” Sunset was gorgeous with some dolphins paying us a visit and wishing us luck for our journey forward.
I’ve finally made my choice in answer to Mary’s hard question: If you had a choice between having large wings that you couldn’t detach, or having octopus arms, which one would you choose? I’m afraid I’ve gone with the much less glamorous but practical choice of octopus arms—and I’m in good company with Mary and Alex, who have chosen the same way.
The winds died this morning and we are motoring. We anticipate the winds should fill in later today. For now, it is time to get some soup…
- Richa
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- Mia (shore support)
crew@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.