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
View more passage logs
Ketch us if you Kan
Falken is soon to carry on our preferred route of South, back to (hopefully) warmer climates. We’re all excited to set off and see more of this wild landscape as we head down to Victoria. A thermal trough over Vancouver combined with an offshore high pressure creating funneling NW’ly winds means it is due to be pretty fruity on the 9th. This passage is just under 600 miles, relatively short for Falken, but I’m sure we’ll be kept entertained with dramatic scenery, wildlife and weather!
Final Blog
Falken and her crew arrived safely into port last night around 8pm boat time, 10pm Prince Rupert time. Some spicy weather was anticipated, but luckily the 35kt gusts and 2.5 meter waves were no match for this expert crew. We had an exceptionally smooth docking, despite it being Alex's first time parking this year (!). We all agreed that this was a very special group of people—I for one am so impressed with how everyone stayed so positive, helpful, and appreciative of humor despite an arguably challenging passage. We'll all return home significantly saltier than we were when we left, a mark of a passage properly sailed.
Lessons and a Gift
The biggest lesson is the helm. The lesson here is that even if you don't think you can do it over and over again with no sleep, cold and damp, it has to be done and so it can be done. Flying fish are cool, dolphins are really really cool, but the coolest of them all are the whales. And most of all Alex: "Find your center Carla. Always know where your center is so you can come back to it". He means the helm but it applies to life as well.