Sunday, June 22, 2025 | Upwind Battle
Splash BANG
Over the last several days, FALKEN has been beating upwind due north, steadily closing the distance between us and Hawaii. Everyone is delighted by the upwind sailing, both above and below deck. Alex is often heard remarking that it is his favorite point of sail. I assume it is because of the fun surprises he gets while the boat rides up and down the swells, smashing her bow into the waves. Like the time he was in the head during a moment of relative calm, then suddenly sideways and frantically pumping to escape disaster. Or the time he was cozied in his bed, enjoying a fresh breeze from his open hatch, when Istvan drove the boat directly into a crashing wave for the sheer glee of it. A deluge of water rained down on Alex, causing him to laugh and bounce with delight.
The best of the surprises happened just last night. Around 9:30 pm, everyone on the boat heard a BANG loud enough to penetrate through industrial strength earplugs and the noise-canceling technology of Apple AirPods Max. As the boat was bounding along, the pin holding the refrigerator closed had been strained to the point of collapse. Jake dealt the final blow. He claims he delicately touched it and suddenly the fridge came flying out of the wall and across the room. Only Mary was there to witness, however. The two of them muddled through a cascade of cucumbers and attempted to restore the fridge to its rightful place. Their efforts, however, were futile. It now lives under the galley table.
So we endure the endless delight of upwind sailing. Onward to Hawaii!
Tara
Write your comments below and I’ll forward them to the boat with the daily update :) - Mia (shore support)
FALKENCrew
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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.