Sailing
We are gearing up for our last twenty-four hours at sea that is promising to be some sporty sailing. The crew defeated the final boss, Tehuantepec winds, a few days ago. Now that everyone is battle hardened we are putting on our crusty, sunscreen caked game faces on for the little brother, Papagayo winds, which are forecasting twenty-seven knots gusting to thirty-five knots. In the mean time we’ve had several ebbs and flows of perfect thirteen to fifteen knot sailing with a couple hours of easy flat motoring to top up on sleep.
Have you ever heard of disco jellies, or electric dolphins? I never had until we set off on this trip and what a treat it has been to learn about the bio illumination and then immediately get to see them in all their glory. First we had the electric dolphins zooming through the water like little torpedoes leaving a trail of teal blue streaks. There were hours of entertainment to be had just following their sporadic movements. At times two to four dolphins would get into perfect Blue Angels fighter jet formation whizz by the side of the boat and peel off from one another just like at the air show. The dolphins were amazing and just as awe inspiring were the flickering orbs of the disco jellies. The same beautiful teal blue in front of the magical starry night sky made the night watches effortless.
Delaney has kept a steady and variable stream of snack options such as Pringles, my favorite, granola bars, chocolate straws, mixed nuts, and plenty of fruit. Now getting down to the snack dregs digging deep in the cabinets revealed dried pineapple and cashew clusters. Both of these are worth their weight in gold having exhausted our fresh fruit days ago and wanting a new flavor of salt the doesn’t have to get dropped in sixteen ounces of water and dissolve for four minutes.
Mary is whipping up a wonderfully fragrant sweet potato, squash risotto with crispy artichokes, Italian sausage, and a heaping three cheese blend -butter counts as cheese ;). I have no doubt our last dinner will be one of the best with the stunning Nicaraguan mountains as our backdrop at sun set.
Papagayo Winds here we come!
// Jake
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”For some things, we will never be ready.” - Moana 2
After 852 miles of open ocean sailing, the crew of Falken dropped anchor in Moorea's Cook's Bay—not with a quiet glide in, but surfing down waves in a squall, breaking speed records and cheering each other on through the rain. What started as a plan to "just dip a toe" into offshore sailing turned into something harder to explain: the worse the conditions got, the more alive everyone felt. Turns out the question was never whether the crew was ready—it was whether they even needed to be.
Kauehi conundrum
Kauehi atoll was always on the itinerary—until the forecast made it a gamble not worth taking. Squalls, bommies, a tidal pass, and no clean escape route: sometimes the hardest call in sailing is the one that keeps you out of a place, not in it. The Tuamotus will have to wait.
Hove-to!
Falken is too fast—a problem most sailors would kill for, yet here we are, tacking back and forth across the Pacific just to kill time. A rogue low pressure system south of Tahiti has stolen the trades and scrambled our timing for the tidal window into Kauehi's pass, leaving us hove-to 45 miles short of our target in the Tuamotus. Salt licorice, dream sandwich debates, and a philosophical question about mermaid reproduction are helping pass the night.