Through the North Sea
55º 57’ N / 002º 45’ E
Monday, July 22, 2024, 08:15 Local Time | Day 2 At Sea
55º 57’ N / 002º 45’ E
What a difference 24 hours can make. The first 24 hours were pretty busy to say the least, but yesterday the wind eased off and by midday we were sailing downwind with the preventer rigged on the main. One by one, the crew started to get color back in their faces.
We are running a rolling watch round the clock. Crew are in pairs of two, and there are always four crew on deck—two pairs—while two pairs are sleeping. Every two hours, a new pair comes up: four hours on, four hours off.
Yesterday afternoon, Nikki made an amazing dal (curry) and we had everyone up on deck for the first time since we left Bergen. Having a hot meal by the end of the day really lifts morale, and even if people didn’t think they were hungry, they went for seconds! Tonight on the menu is a ginger curry—fingers crossed the galley is not going to heel too much.
We have had very little wildlife, or maybe we have been too busy sailing the boat and swapping buckets to look for any. A couple of birds are circling the boat, but that’s pretty much it. Last night, we were dodging oil rigs and at one point we had 11 of them in sight. We got called up on the radio by a gentleman telling us to keep 2 nm clear of any rig. The depth at the moment is only 86 meters!
All good onboard. Anne is at the helm, with Rachel and Jamie up on deck. Katie is washing up the mugs from this morning while the rest of the crew is off watch and sleeping in their bunks.
That’s it from us on FALKEN!
— Mia
mia@59-north.com
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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.