pre-departure
Lagos, Portugal
I am sitting onboard FALKEN in Lagos. It’s January 5 and tomorrow is the official start of the 2024 season. Andy and I came down to Portugal on the 30th to have a mini-vacation with our son Axel, celebrate the new year, and let Axel play on FALKEN and explore the beaches. Ever since we first came to Portugal in 2012, it has held a special place in our hearts, and it was great to show it to Axel this time.
After our last passage in November, FALKEN has been on the hard in Portimao getting a few upgrades and some well-deserved love after a busy 2023 season. Adam and Alex arrived on Tuesday night; Adam finished some projects on FALKEN and Alex will be our skipper for this leg. We splashed on Wednesday and motored over to the marina—no sails, since they have been at the sailmaker getting looked over and cleaned. The sails came back and we figured it was best to put them on straight away, after giving the boat a good scrub to get rid of the boatyard dust.
Rain was scheduled for Thursday, and high gusts on Friday, so Wednesday evening looked to be the best option to get the main back on. As soon as we got it ready, it started to rain, and halfway through the wind picked up, but we muscled it on anyway and were happy to get the job done. The boat is now provisioned, cleaned, and ready for crew to come tomorrow. We have been following the weather and it looks like a Sunday departure to avoid some stronger headwinds on the 12th. We will get another look at the weather tomorrow and passage plan together with the crew.
Now it’s time for a shower, dinner, and a good night’s sleep!
——
January 6
Crew arrived today at 13:00 to FALKEN. After a few days with rain on and off, we had clear sky and beautiful weather today. Back in 2019, every single time crew arrived to the boat, it rained. Thankfully, we had sunshine today and we started the day by walking around the deck from bow to stern showing everyone the boat, followed by safety briefings down below.
We had dinner ashore booked at 6:30—early for the Portuguese, but since we are departing tomorrow, an early bed will be nice! Lots of happy chats around and we didn’t leave the restaurant until 9 pm. Time for bed now and up bright and early for coffee and breakfast. The aim is to depart around lunchtime. We’ll sit down after breakfast to look at the route, check the GRIBs, and make a plan for the passage south to Las Palmas.
Cheers from Mia and the FALKEN crew
View more passage logs
Ketch us if you Kan
Falken is soon to carry on our preferred route of South, back to (hopefully) warmer climates. We’re all excited to set off and see more of this wild landscape as we head down to Victoria. A thermal trough over Vancouver combined with an offshore high pressure creating funneling NW’ly winds means it is due to be pretty fruity on the 9th. This passage is just under 600 miles, relatively short for Falken, but I’m sure we’ll be kept entertained with dramatic scenery, wildlife and weather!
Final Blog
Falken and her crew arrived safely into port last night around 8pm boat time, 10pm Prince Rupert time. Some spicy weather was anticipated, but luckily the 35kt gusts and 2.5 meter waves were no match for this expert crew. We had an exceptionally smooth docking, despite it being Alex's first time parking this year (!). We all agreed that this was a very special group of people—I for one am so impressed with how everyone stayed so positive, helpful, and appreciative of humor despite an arguably challenging passage. We'll all return home significantly saltier than we were when we left, a mark of a passage properly sailed.
Lessons and a Gift
The biggest lesson is the helm. The lesson here is that even if you don't think you can do it over and over again with no sleep, cold and damp, it has to be done and so it can be done. Flying fish are cool, dolphins are really really cool, but the coolest of them all are the whales. And most of all Alex: "Find your center Carla. Always know where your center is so you can come back to it". He means the helm but it applies to life as well.