Sail Training!
Local time: 16:00
Yesterday we left Ensenada at around 08:30 in the morning. It was sunny and you could barely feel any wind in your face. We went through the process of hoisting sails and straight away we dived into reefing drills followed by tacking. After 6 reefs and 12 tacks, we decided to settle into the watch system and embrace the night.
We knew from the forecast that we were expecting a front to come through at around 8pm local time, so we set the boat up in anticipation of the weather. At 19:55, in came the wind shift followed by heavy rain and 30 knot gusts. It was exhilarating! The night was then followed by isolated squalls that would hit you with strong gusts followed by light winds. So, not an easy night sailing but one to be proud of.
Unfortunately, we did have the green monster make an appearance, debilitating a couple of the watches, but everyone powered through and no one missed a watch.
With sunrise, the wind decided to die off completely and we went onto our drill for the day: what to do if you lose the rudder or steering cables. We tried different methods and deployed our drogue as an additional steering option. It was a great success and a valuable learning experience! We followed that up with a couple of theory lessons and gave the crew some time off. It was clear that we’re training hard, as it was just myself, Adam, and Delaney left on deck as everyone disappeared for a nap.
Now we’re cooking a mushroom risotto before we get into our watch system for the night. The wind is fluky but we’re luckily still moving, so if you wonder where we are going on the tracker: where the wind takes us.
Lots of love,
Alex | FALKEN Skipper
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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.