1912 UTC | 08 deg 19.13 min N / 086 deg 34.89 min W
Sailing, Motoring
The quality of the 59° North Staff can’t be overstated. Turning a group of strangers into a functioning crew in a day is a big challenge… and they have succeeded. We are on watch groups of 3, with 3 hours on and 6 hours off, which gives us the opportunity to experience helming every hour of the day over the journey. More importantly we are all leaning on each other and everyone is eager to lend a hand, whenever.
AND WE WENT SWIMMING TODAY. While this entire adventure is a bucket list item for many (sailing an ocean crossing, visiting the Galapagos, helming by starlight in the middle of the ocean), adding “Go for a swim in 10,000 foot deep water”) is a fun one to check off. And the water was lovely, so bonus there.
The experience below deck is another adventure. Call it “Super functional no fluff”. It has everything we need for living aboard, but if you want turn down service, move along, this ain’t the passage for you. Belowdeck is perfectly set up to keep us fed and rested. If you’re curious, the YouTube video where Andy and Jen go through the FALKEN shows it perfectly.
That about wraps it up for now… we’re excited to get back under sail asap, hoping that’s by tomorrow.
Enjoying the ride.
Enjoying the Ride - Jeremy
View more passage logs
Tahiti-Taha’a and a birthday
Bora Bora who? Leg 6 crew are aboard and setting their sights on the lesser-known gems of French Polynesia — Taha'a and Huahine — where vanilla farms, manta rays, and drift coral snorkels await. The new anchorage booking system is a noble idea in theory, though its website appears to share the reliability of the wind, which has cheerfully decided to blow from exactly the wrong direction. It's upwind sailing, birthday cake, and uncharted territory from here.
”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.