March 24, 2025 | Sailing through the doldrums!
2:30 am: I am waking up for the next watch, a smile crosses my heart. We are under sail… in the middle of the doldrums. I take the helm, feel the breeze on my face, marvel at the ease with which FALKEN moves upwind, and wish this—somewhere between the Colombian coast and the wide Pacific—could go on forever. An added layer is keeping me warm.
12 noon: Time to start the next watch. The sun is scorching and we are back on motor. There comes our great skippering team with a wonderful idea: the pool is open! We all go for a refreshing dip and lounge in our towels on deck, marveling at the exquisiteness of our surroundings and the joy of sharing the moment. I am reminded that it is about the journey, even if the destination is Galapagos.
- Nina Z. | FALKEN Crew
P.S. If you are reading this blog, please write some comments in the section below and we’ll send it over to the crew to read. I am sure they will love it :)
- Mia & Andy (shore support on Leg 5, Panama to Galapagos)
FALKENCrew
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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.
Seasickness
But maybe, I thought, with some drugs I could stay ahead of it. The first 48 hours I felt horrible. But luckily with 3 health care professionals on board and in a very encouraging environment, my body found its way. Anyway, someone offered me a patch (unavailable in Canada) and someone else gave me some pills for nausea and now I feel much, much better.