41°40'N 125°38'W
41°40'N 125°38'W | 13:30 Local time | 22nd of August
Day three of offshore sailing and we are all falling into the groove of watch, rest, nourishment. We are a small community of wildly brave women who are willing and able to cast off the lines of shore life and head into the unknown. Our varied and different lives are melding together to create cohesion and a vast wealth of experience and perspective. We all delight in the sightings of marine life, the liminal times of dawn and dusk, the phosphorescence, Dall’s porpoises shooting through the dark water creating a trail of effervescence.
Changing watch every four hours means we are interrupting our normal cycles, and it can be a struggle to get out of our cozy bunks in the wee hours of the night, but sailing to the constellation of Scorpio is an experience that makes us feel so alive! At this moment, we have sailed 545 miles south at 175 degrees and are currently crossing into the offshore waters beyond California. We are sailing wing and wing downwind, or as the French call it—“butterfly”—with fair winds and following seas that roll up to 10 feet. Waves always feel bigger when you are in them.
Tonight we will pass Cape Mendocino, the most westerly land point of our trip, and it represents my childhood home. This is quite the mermaid experience for me, as I know about the triple junction fault lines, including the San Andreas fault, and the deep sea trench below the surface of the water. I learned to surf with my dad and brother in these isolated waters, and my long goal was to never find myself offshore… and here I am, challenging myself to reach beyond my comfort zone and see the world with new eyes. I know my dad will feel me as I pass by. I love you, Dad and Vicky!
My dad’s family are the kind of adventurers who traveled across the continent in pioneer days to settle in the great Puget Sound of Washington, and over generations they migrated south to California. Beginning this trip in the Strait of Juan de Fuca reminds me of all my grandmothers who were brave and strong, whose DNA I carry now. On the other side, my mom’s family has California roots that reach deep, before California was a state or part of the US. I have a great-great-great-great-grandmother who arrived by herself in San Francisco on a boat to start a new life, and others who were there before the settlers arrived. Their strength and endurance in the face of adversity are in my bones.
We are all wanderers, all testing ourselves against the elements, against ourselves, to go beyond the mundane… beyond the trappings of shore life to come full circle to who we are in our depths.
- Hannah B.
FALKENCrew
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HMS Night Watch Party
Wing on wing worked well until the wind shifted then the helm became the cone of despair for our night watch crew of three (H, M and S) Alex made the decision to drop the pole, shifting wing on wing to a close reach. Wind increased to low teens and speed picked up to a flying pace. Day spent wandering toward Ensenada. Alex, Adam and David got us into port under another starry night.
No Kitemares Today
After a night marked by sudden wind accelerations peeling off Point Conception, and a vibrant, pulsating sky blistered with shooting stars, the off-watch woke to commotion on the foredeck. The wind had gone light and the swell had tapered just enough to raise the spinnaker. The sail filled with an urgent pop, the sheet strained and Falken charged down the face of the next wave. By mid-day, we doused the spinnaker and set our minds to the more precise task of safely punching through a gap in the notorious Cortez Bank. The border to Mexico looms ahead.
The California coast
We had a very lively first day of sailing with steady winds between 25 and 30 kn gusting to mid 30s. All of the crew got experience at difficult downwind helming as we covered 200 nautical miles in the first 24 hours. This morning brings winds in the teens and calmer seas. The sun is still shining, and the green monster has been slayed by those afflicted!