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
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.
Making the most of it
This passage has thrown pretty much every atmospheric condition imaginable at us. It reminds us not only of how much we’ve learned, but of how far we’ve literally come since that acceleration zone off the northwest corner of Oahu. The resilience this group has shown has been nothing short of incredible, and I couldn’t be prouder to be part of it. Maybe that’s why it’s the hardest passages we remember the most. Not because they were easy, but because they reminded us what we’re capable of.
