Through the North Sea

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