O454 UTC | 43° 22.48’ N 153°48.88’ W
Sailing
Yesterday found Falken on a Northward course, still heeled to port, climbing and falling over waves. Though diminishing, she still occasionally plummeted down the back of a wave, landing with a loud thud. The sound she made we all had become accustomed to, and at times more than a little bit irritated by. Despite this, a change in mood was definitely happening among the crew. It began a few days back, with the first of two birthday celebrations, complete with brownies and a very festive party hat worn by Adam. Yesterday we celebrated Zoe’s birthday with plastic hula dancer figurines and tiramisu. A couple of whales even poked their heads up near the boat to wish Zoe a happy birthday. Spirits were improving! Finally, overnight, the change we’d all been anticipating began to happen. The easterly winds that we had been wrestling with started to come around to our stern, along with diminishing swells. The night crew dropped and flaked the stay sail, shook out the last reef, and unfurled the full yankee. Alas, we were transitioning to a broad reach, a step closer to heading fully downwind.
Sunrise this morning found Falken in an entirely different condition, one familiar to her, but not yet to the current crew. She was elegantly and almost silently gliding forward on a northeasterly course. She rose and dipped over gentle waves, heeled only slightly. The crew awakened to a beautiful and peaceful ocean, thin clouds looking like a painters subtle pink and grey brush strokes. A few muted sun beams peaked through. And then a truly magic moment, a pod of dolphins at least fifty members strong came to dance on Falken’s bow wave. They playfully breached and dove for ten minutes, eventually peeling off a few at a time, heading off to find another playground. What a delightful exclamation point to perfect morning.
Falken’s new course is extraordinarily pleasant, and her crew are all wearing easy smiles. We were each able to take a hot shower, the first since the voyage began. More of us are lingering in the salon or on deck between watches, allowing for good conversation and shared laughter. We are now joyfully headed northeast, on course toward our eventual destination of Prince Rupert. It is still far off, but refreshed, we anticipate the remainder of our journey with optimism and excitement.
Falken has turned a corner.
Michael Riley
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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.