The pool is open!
01.00 BOAT TIME | 09º 23.3’ S 134º 09.1’ W
Sailing
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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”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.