A few hours ago our crew of eight women left the boat and onto the ferry into central Amsterdam. There is nothing better than to hear your crew chatting about where they are going to meet up for dinner once the trip is over. A sure sign that these eight individuals - once strangers - are now friends. Friends out of choice, rather than because they are forced into the confines of a 65 foot sailing yacht with no escape! 

This morning I was reminded of how fulfilling it is to see people you coach start to gain in confidence. As I was making scrambled eggs down below the gang on deck were discussing how to make the boat go faster. Impressively I managed to keep my nose out of it ;) One of them quoted “when in doubt let it out” and lo and behold, after a decisive ease of the main, and a transferring of the jib to the outboard lead, the boat picked up three knots! Proud skipper moment :) Good job Jaime, Anne, Rach and Kellye.

We have had very little wildlife, or maybe we have been too busy sailing the boat and swapping buckets to look for any ;) A couple birds are circling the boat, but that’s pretty much it. Last night, we were dodging oil rigs and at one point we had 11 of them in sight. We got called up on the radio from a gentlemen telling us to keep 2 nm clear of any rig. The depth at the moment is only 86 meters!

“There is a bucket stationed in every area” she said to me, to the familiar background track of hurling. Someone had gone for round 2. But I’ll tell you - I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much puke come with so many smiling faces. The crew are determined to soak up every last second that they can on deck. And so on they go, braving the undressing and dressing manoeuvre again and again and again. Impressive!

It is 7.50 on FALKEN n Bergen and most of the crew is already up. Coffee has been hot for almost an hour and the breakfast is served. I asked how they slept and one said, not really, its of new noises and some others, ‘I had a full night sleep, without the teenagers in the house, this has been so quite’. We have ‘quite time ’until 8 am, crew can be up but be respectful of those who are sleeping still…

We are in Bergen as we speak, or actually, to be more correct, in Hjelmås, about 45 minutes north of the city, rafted up to ISBJØRN at her summer berth. FALKEN arrived to Bergen from Galway on Saturday and I flew in with Andy. Last year when we looked at the schedule we realized that both ISBJØRN and FALKEN will be in Bergen at the same time, for the first time.

Our last day all together on FALKEN. Time to arrive in the big city of Bergen. We slipped the lines and motored up the fjord while eating a leisurely breakfast. The crew taking it in turns to pack their bags and clean their bunks ready for departure. 

Some of us slept really well at anchor, others found the silence too quiet, some of us were still waking up every 4 hours for our watches. In the morning we found ourselves anchored in a beautiful calm location. After a breakfast in the cockpit, the planes started to land. We were in the flight path of Bergen airport!

What a wet, wet night it was as we sped through the nimbo stratus in force 6, then the winds slowly decreasing. The slamming stopped and we sped through the North Sea on a smoother ride. Unfortunately the wind slowed and reduced to nothing in the morning and we were motoring in fog. What a contrast

Baptism of the North SWhat a different day! As we made our way towards the Fair Isle Channel we went from full sail to three reefs in the sail and staysail. We arrived just at the right moment for the tide to be favourable and the wind backed north as predicted to allow us to reach through the channel comfortably in building seas.

Yesterday we sailed north beyond 59N to just over 60N before changing course towards the Fair Isle Channel between Orkney and Shetland. This was so that we could get a good tack through the channel. Sadly for us this is a windward trip all the way so far. Maybe we will have a reach across the North Sea? If we ask Neptune kindly?

Last night we had a stunning sail through a patch of rain clouds and managed to dodge them all. As Port watch handed over, their instructions were  to ‘keep the speed, chase the rain clouds, try and beat their speed record of ...

Today has been warm and sunny and we have had some great sailing conditions. Some call it’s champagne sailing! Falken slips through the water with ease under full sail close reaching over a beautiful sea that I call the ocean plains. Sea birds are flying in company with us and the day ended with a beautiful sunset.

We had the most beautiful evening sail into the long lasting sunset with dolphins joining us and Falken sailing well with staysail and three reefs in the main in 25-29kts of wind through the Aran islands and out into the Atlantic Ocean.

We have had a busy few days preparing Falken for her next trip from Galway Ireland to Bergen in Norway. This included a deck wash and filling the water tanks from a fire hydrant. Then to fill the tanks with diesel a lovely man arrived in little fuel lorry with tales of fishing under sail. The welcome here in Ireland has been wonderful.

We approached the channels between the Aran islands in the early morning hours and pushed on to make the lock to Galway harbor that only opens from 2 hours before high water to high water.

First, what can I say about Chris, Manot, and Athena? They are quite literally the best sailors I have ever had the opportunity to learn from. They are also wonderful humans who have demonstrated endless patience and leadership for the entire crew

The fog is still all around us, white, thick at times, clearer sometimes, and gone rarely. It is a funny feeling sailing “blind”. Especially with 10+ knots of boat speed.

Today the crew was greeted with a variety of weather as we are sailing on the outskirts of a low pressure zone. The morning was filled with a thick cool fog and calm seas until 0902 UTC when the swell began to pick up again.

With 550nm to go and 700nm already sailed we are well past the halfway point. Going by the weather forecast we should have a good downwind run almost all the way in and reach the Aran Islands late on the 24th.