Thai curry and whales!
17.25 LOCAL TIME | 03º 19’S 092º 05’W
SAILING
Happy Birthday, Quinn! It’s hard to believe we have only been underway for just over 24 hours. The day has been filled with sailing, and despite being down to 3 knots of boat speed at times, we have managed to continue sailing due to the flat sea! Most of the day, though, we have had wind between 6–10 knots and had a great sail with both the yankee and the staysail up! It is hot, but thanks to the breeze and the shade that the main is creating, we have managed to stay sane.
Zoey is having a shrimp Thai curry on the stove; I can imagine she is ready for some cool breeze after an hour in the galley :) We are also having a ‘surprise’ chocolate cake for Quinn to celebrate his birthday after dinner. I’m not sure how much of a surprise it will be, though, as it’s hard to cover the smell from the oven when it’s being baked. One little mishap we discovered from Galapagos was that we managed to get ‘wax paper’ instead of parchment paper—not ideal for making the cake, oops! Who uses wax paper? Never understood that concept. Lost in translation…
Vince and Phoebe are on watch, with Vince currently at the helm. Jim just got out of his bunk after a nice little nap, probably waking up to the smell of Zoey’s Thai curry! First full day on FALKEN, and it feels like we have been here a week already. We had a pod of pilot whales visit us earlier today, then a pod of dolphins while I was sound asleep a few hours ago. Last night, we had a few birds circling around the boat, making a cracking sound that, after many tries, we decided was impossible to imitate :)
Cheers,
Mia Karlsson
View more passage logs
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.
Dolphins and Bioluminescence
We had a good run with the sails but weather has changed and we are once again chasing the wind. Everyone is getting a chance to practice helming in big swell; starting to get a feel of the wind and water and how it pushes and pulls the hull. A pod of dolphins came to visit at night, splashing in the bioluminescent water, and again in the day, dancing in the bow wake. For now enjoying the calmer sea state and falling asleep to the rumble of the engine and the gentle whooshing of the water on the hull.
Greetings from Lala Lemonshark
The brave crew is toughing it out and staying cheerful despite being tossed around. The engine is off and we are true sailing-main and jib. In the first 12 hours we saw two pods of Orca and four humpback whales, two of which were 20 yards off the starboard beam!