Upwind Beat
Saturday, June 7, 2025 | Papeete, Tahiti
I’m sitting in the nav station while the crew are having some coffee on deck. Checklists are done, briefings are completed, and all that’s left to do is refuel before we head out to sea. I always have mixed emotions before slipping lines; it doesn’t matter if it’s for a day-sail around the Solent or to cross the Pacific, that pre-departure feeling is always there. I know that once we hoist the sails and set a heading, all the nerves and anxiety will disappear instantly, but until then I have learned to cope with these feelings. The crew are all very excited to be sailing in these waters. We have a few stoppage options on the way to Honolulu and an Equator crossing to get through first, but OMG, what a place to be doing what we love the most! We’ll keep you all updated as we go.
Lots of love,
Alex & the crew
laline96@gmail.com
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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.
Golden Day
The Pacific is giving us “the shimmer” - with a still flat sea seven hours out of San Francisco Bay, we’re motoring south along the shipping channel, with an hour to go to what teases now as a stunning sunset against wispy clouds. Throughout this first day of Falken 11 the sails have unfurled and been furled again as skipper Alex tries to fill them a meager breeze indeed. We’ve seen a few whales traveling along the route, and an otter that was sadly just a buoy. It’s the first open ocean sail for many of us and it’s a thrill to anticipate all the new experiences we’ll have.
Seasickness
But maybe, I thought, with some drugs I could stay ahead of it. The first 48 hours I felt horrible. But luckily with 3 health care professionals on board and in a very encouraging environment, my body found its way. Anyway, someone offered me a patch (unavailable in Canada) and someone else gave me some pills for nausea and now I feel much, much better.