12:00 UTC | 30°06.5N 158°31.3W
Sailing
Greetings from Falken, fast under sail in the Pacific!
After some initial adversity, we untied our lines and left the beautiful island of O’ahu behind as we set sail north on an adventure of a lifetime.
Lead by our outstanding team of our Captain Alex, first officer Adam, and apprentice Zoe, 8 eager crew from all walks of life and life experience performed their tasks brilliantly. Forgive any spelling errors, as I know everyone by verbal, not written name: Carla, Michael, Kurt…Jim, Daniel, Nikolai, Joe, and Corey.
After dinner tonight, the Hawaiian word for family (which I’ll likely mess up without the help of google) Ohana was mentioned. And that is exactly what we are - a family of strangers brought together by a passion for sailing and a love for the sea. Learning to care and serve one another. In humility, making each of us better and stronger.
The passage, while at its infancy, has delivered. The wind and seas, stars and sails all set the stage for a fantastic journey. Love and gratitude to all our friends, families, and supporters. None of this would be possible without you. We will see you on the other side with many stories to tell.
Until then, Godspeed and HOLD FAST!!!
Joe
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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.
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.