The Beautiful night!
0630 Boat time | 08º 11.7’N 112º 53.4’ W
Sailing Wing-On-Wing
It is now 6.30 on FALKEN and the sun is about to come up over the horizon, but the glow started already a half hour ago and it has gradually been getting lighter. Kate was at the helm, while Jim, Adam and I were chatting about who knows what in the cockpit when we heard a flap on the side deck. A beautiful bird had landed on the side deck. I am not sure what kind it is, need to go and dig into our books onboard, but it’s definitely one of the seabirds that has been circling around us since we left Galapagos! He is now resting just outside the cockpit, nicely tucked over the jib sheet and behind the preventer, it’s almost like he wants to hang out with us, or maybe he is simply just getting a well needed rest?
We had an amazing night with a sky filled of stars, except for a short lived rain cloud that came over us earlier in the night. We had Scorpio behind us with Libra above, while Orion was setting just behind the jib. Big Dipper was ‘upside down’ to our starboard and the little sliver of moon comes up later and later now. It’s amazing though how much light we get from the moon, despite being so small. In Swedish we have a word ‘mångata’, the reflection of the moon on the water (translates to 'moon road’ - I love the nights!
Mia Karlsson
View more passage logs
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.