The pool is open!
01.00 BOAT TIME | 09º 23.3’ S 134º 09.1’ W
Sailing
It’s 1.30 in the morning and FAKEN is gliding along at 7 kts under a sky ful of stars. The last few days, when the wind got lighter and the swell laid down a bit, we had the opportunity to hoist the spinnaker. Before we left Galapagos, we went around the room and asked what people were looking forward to and the big pink sail was high on the list, so it felt great when we finally could hoist it. We had it up all day Monday, and kept it up over night into Tuesday as the wind was set o be less than 10 kts of true. Mid day it was time to gybe, and the wind had eased even more, but before the gybe we opened up the pool. We stopped the boat, got the ladder down and put out a line with a fender behind the boat. I love swimming in the middle of the ocean, and a bit scary when you realize its more than 4000+ m deep! Love it!
Earlier in the morning, the when the wind finally died true and the spinnaker went limp, we took it down and had to motor for a couple of hours. Lucky enough the wind picked up by the afternoon and we could have another go at the spinnaker before it came down before dinner. We are now back wing-on-wing, with breeze up above 10 kts almost on course for Nuku Hiva! Less than 400 nm to go and we are enjoying the last few days onboard!
Mia
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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.
Golden Day
The Pacific is giving us “the shimmer” - with a still flat sea seven hours out of San Francisco Bay, we’re motoring south along the shipping channel, with an hour to go to what teases now as a stunning sunset against wispy clouds. Throughout this first day of Falken 11 the sails have unfurled and been furled again as skipper Alex tries to fill them a meager breeze indeed. We’ve seen a few whales traveling along the route, and an otter that was sadly just a buoy. It’s the first open ocean sail for many of us and it’s a thrill to anticipate all the new experiences we’ll have.
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.