Whales, Radar and gratitude
38 00.01N 122 58.2 W
38 00.01N 122 58.2 W | 07:30 Local time | 24th of August
Land Ho! Well… apparently. We’d planned an arrival like you’ve never seen since the Maiden days—11 ladies in swimsuits adorning the deck and sailing under the bridge. But, alas, someone made pea soup for breakfast, and dinner last night too. So we’ve donned our foul weather gear. Stay tuned for next year… ;)
As the light of our last full day at sea started to dim last night and we gorged on Mia’s delicious daal and naan bread, the fog began to roll in. “It smells more like ‘sea’ out here than normal,” one of the ladies called down below as Mia and I were figuring out the radar. Being such salty seafarers, we popped up with our attuned noses to decipher the smell ;) And it turns out the ladies are much more polite than us—we’d call ‘sea aroma’ ‘super fishy’! And then poof! A spout came up to confirm—not fishy, but Whaley! We don’t know exactly what breed they are because the visibility was low and so was the light, but there were whales everywhere. Big ones—they showed up on the radar… (Joking). They were all around us. Slap slap slapping the water, breathing, showing off their shiny black skin… it was stunning. Porpoises came. Birds too. And then, as the world turned dark grey, the clarity of the top of the mast and anywhere beyond the railings of the boat disappeared. We realized that the last part of our trip we actually saw was a wildlife show. Gratitude was the word.
By 0200 we had dropped our main and were edging into an anchorage. Hannah on the bow, Catherine on one shroud, Kris and Sierra on the other—were shining white lights on the water to keep a lookout for fishing buoys. “Shout loud and we will swerve,” we told them, as they’d only end up seeing them when they came into vision… which was about 2 feet from the boat in all directions. It might have been the eeriest entrance to an anchorage I’ve ever had. As we passed the green buoy, we could hear the sea-lions on the buoy but we couldn’t see the buoy itself. Nikki (there is another Nikki onboard, although yes, I have been known to talk about myself in the 3rd person when really tired) drove in so brilliantly as we found a spot to drop our hook. And then celebration—passage style! We had granola! And a full 4 hours of sleep!
Now—pancakes, and prep before departure. More reflections on the entire trip tomorrow. Thanks for watching, although we couldn’t see you. We are hoping we actually see the bridge as we sail underneath.
Nikki x
NikkiHenderson
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Ketch us if you Kan
Falken is soon to carry on our preferred route of South, back to (hopefully) warmer climates. We’re all excited to set off and see more of this wild landscape as we head down to Victoria. A thermal trough over Vancouver combined with an offshore high pressure creating funneling NW’ly winds means it is due to be pretty fruity on the 9th. This passage is just under 600 miles, relatively short for Falken, but I’m sure we’ll be kept entertained with dramatic scenery, wildlife and weather!
Final Blog
Falken and her crew arrived safely into port last night around 8pm boat time, 10pm Prince Rupert time. Some spicy weather was anticipated, but luckily the 35kt gusts and 2.5 meter waves were no match for this expert crew. We had an exceptionally smooth docking, despite it being Alex's first time parking this year (!). We all agreed that this was a very special group of people—I for one am so impressed with how everyone stayed so positive, helpful, and appreciative of humor despite an arguably challenging passage. We'll all return home significantly saltier than we were when we left, a mark of a passage properly sailed.
Lessons and a Gift
The biggest lesson is the helm. The lesson here is that even if you don't think you can do it over and over again with no sleep, cold and damp, it has to be done and so it can be done. Flying fish are cool, dolphins are really really cool, but the coolest of them all are the whales. And most of all Alex: "Find your center Carla. Always know where your center is so you can come back to it". He means the helm but it applies to life as well.