Excerpt from Ships log: #6. FALKEN | GALAPAGOS TO MARQUESAS | WHERE IS THE WIND?
April 22, 2200 Ship’s Time | Approx. 9º28’ S, 133º47’W | Broad Reaching with Full Main and Jib Top
Well, well, well… Who could’ve foreseen that the most uncertain part of this trip would be the 300nm to landfall?
In a way that was forecast by the GRIB models we’ve been downloading underway, it does look like the SE trades are taking a holiday for the remainder of the week, and it’s forced us to get a little creative aboard FALKEN. We’re currently reaching north to try and take advantage of some slightly friendlier current, as well as generate a little apparent wind. With a boat of this size with a sail that carries this much inertia by itself, the main swinging from side-to-side in low winds sends a shock through the entire boat that I can only compare to playing the game “Operation” poorly… Or maybe that one scene in the movie 127 Hours? It’s a shock that you can feel in your teeth, and it’s certainly neither enjoyable for the crew nor good for the equipment.
For the most part, we’ve crushed this passage. As I type this, we’ve just crossed into 2900nm sailed in 14 days and 7 hours, which is an average of a little less than 8.5 knots. It does feel a little unfortunate that, of course, it’s the last little stint where we lose the pressure, but as Andy has said to me, “sailing is not about focusing on the things outside of your control”. We continue on with a strategy of chipping away at the miles to land, hopefully with a more optimistic update in the near future!
I also thought it would be fun to share some of the ETA predictions from the crew. We wrote these on the day we left, long before we knew of the days of ITCZ-driven rain ahead, or the beautiful 7-day stretch of 9kt average days. Times are local to Marquesas and arrival is when we are sails down and tied up.
- Hilary – April 23rd @ 11:30
- Kimberly – April 24th @ 09:00
- Scott – April 24th @ 16:00
- Emily – April 25th @ 06:00
- Aidan – April 25th @ 10:00
- Jim – April 26th @ 10:00
- Dennis – April 26th @ 15:20
- Andy – April 26th @ 16:00
- Udo – April 27th @ 20:30
- Ted – April 28th @ 02:30 (where’s the faith, Ted???)
– Aidan Gray
Messages:
Moby, I’m betting on Kim! Andy don’t cheat and fall off too much! Happy sails! Awesome leg! – Mobilicious
FALKEN | GALAPAGOS TO MARQUESAS | FRESH BAKED BREAD!
April 22, 2025 | Light wind
Last night gave us some wonderful light winds sailing on a relatively flat sea that allowed the whole crew to catch up on much needed sleep after the excitement of the night previous. There’s nothing like a night time kite drop followed by an engine fire alarm to keep everyone alert and full of adrenaline and after reconciling all issues it was a huge relief to go from the ridiculous to the sublime.
A vey hot day followed but with a little more wind than forecast and it was shortly after dark this evening that we finally had to accept the wind shift and resort to the iron sail (engine) once more.
Dinner tonight was a combined effort with freshly baked bread courtesy of Scott, a delicious hummus from Hilary and a cous salad to utilize all of the remaining fresh salad vegetables. Add to this the charcuterie that we have saved until the last, and the deck was full of scrumptious delights.
As I type this, we are motor sailing a direct course to Hiva Oa, and we have a little more wind forecast for tomorrow so hopefully can sail the final distance to make landfall. In the meantime, the night hours are a welcome relief from the punishing heat of the day, and we even treat ourselves to the off hot drink to while away the hours on the helm.
Less than 200nm…………
– Emily
April 22, 2025 (Tuesday) 2900 NM midnight, Pacific Ocean
Our shift from 9 Pm to 12 midnight (April 22, 2025) was the type of spectacle or stars that one reads about in the books. Before the moon rose, that dark night highlighted the Milky Way, and dozens of shooting stars appeared. It has been so comfortable aboard Falken since Sunday. The night sails are like a dream, and the days on watch are searing hot. Everyone aboard stays super positive.
We are all really excited for landfall in Hiva Oa. It has been really easy to steer in winds of 10 to 16 knots. We steer to a wind angle of 125 to 135. Most of the time, we have been on our course of 255 degrees to the Marquesas. However, since we took the spinnaker down on Sunday, we have been steering an angle that has made a course heading of 285 to 300 degrees after jibing. The chart plotter shows our zig-zag path downwind. We are lucky that the winds are holding as of 9 AM Tuesday, because they are forecasted to die down today.
It feels a bit surreal. We are so close but still so far. We are out of the range where we can motor, and our velocity made good is between 2 to 5 knots (6 to 7 knots boat speed). This means that we are making anywhere from 50 to 125 nm per day. At this rate, we will arrive in 4 to 6 days. The current thinking is to head as close to our rum line as possible and get within a reasonable range to motor. So, we are close. We reckon that Andy will turn the motor on when the wind dies.
We are enjoying this break from life and the news. The passage has become effortless living aboard. At night, the boat rocks gently from side to side, and sleep comes easily. The ease of life aboard replaced the fear and adrenaline on land with the peacefulness of the waves lapping the hull, the gentle tropical breeze and sometimes the sound of bird calls in the light air. Andy has asked us to think about something we have learned, something we will remember, and a crew member to shout out to. I shudder at being put in a position where we have to call out one person. It’s too hard.
Scott made bread from his dad’s book, and Hillary made hummus. It was a great dinner. Kim steered downwind in light air during dinner. The wind died for a bit, and it was hard to hold course. It picked up again after dinner. The food tasted so good. At this point in the passage, food options have been limited.
We were able to take a shower and wash dirty clothes. We hit 3000 nm today during Ted’s turn to steer. We are less than 200 miles from Hiva Oa. Hopefully, we will be there by Thursday.
-Kim (Crew)
Excerpt from Ships log: #6. FALKEN | GALAPAGOS TO MARQUESAS | MAINTAINANCE
April 23, 2025, | 0229 Ship’s Time 160 Miles ENE of Hiva Oa | Sailing
FALKEN crossed the 3,000-miles sailed threshold yesterday afternoon, and while those 3,000 miles was indeed pretty fast, the final 300 are proving frustratingly slow. We’ve sailed into a wind hole, the SE trades that kept us going at a 220+ miles-per-day clip for so long have faded into a light easterly breeze that more often than not doesn’t have enough pressure in it to keep the sails full in the small, annoying sea state. The boat lurches at an odd-angled wave, the mainsail backwinds and then fills again with a horrendous shudder that shakes the rig and reverberates through the whole boat. Old-timely sailors cursed calms more than storms for the wear and tear they put on ship & crew. I get it!
We’ve had to motor at times when the wind really lays down, but we’re low on fuel thanks to the similarly slowly start we had on departing Galapagos and getting across the equator and the doldrums of the ITCZ. So, I’m hesitant to burn the last two tanks remaining until we’re sure we can refuel in Nuku Hiva. And so, we sail on, ever patient in the dying breeze, and yet hopeful that it’ll hold for the home stretch.
Meanwhile, we’ve been adding to the ever-growing list of maintenance projects on FALKEN, completing some tasks as we go, and making a list for the others that will have to wait until we’re anchored. We had a scare two nights ago when the fire alarm sounded about 10 minutes after we’d furled the sails and cranked on the engine to get through a previous calm spell. The smell of heat and smoke filled the engine compartment. It was still dark, middle of the night around 0200, and for a brief moment the thought of climbing into the life rafts while FALKEN burned to the waterline indeed crossed my mind. Aidan grabbed a fire extinguisher, and we carefully peered into the engine room to ascertain if it was for real or a false alarm.
It was both, kind of. The source of the heat and the smoke was the starboard alternator, the pulley of which was so hot as to be untouchable. The worst-case scenario was that the bearings had burned up and the alternator was seized — not from an electricity standpoint, we still had the second alternator on the port side of the engine — but from the standpoint that the starboard alternator’s belt also drove the raw water pump. If it had been seized and unable even to freewheel, that would have meant no engine at all, without some crafty jury-rigging for the raw water pump.
As it turned out, thankfully, the multi-vee, serpentine belt had simply slipped out of alignment and was rubbing against the case of the alternator, creating friction and therefore smoke and heat. In the moment, I was so tired, and the wind had filled in again, that Emily took over on watch, let me go to sleep, and continued sailing through the night. After a good 4 hours rest, and now in daylight, we finished troubleshooting and properly fixed the problem next morning. Back in business.
My other concern is the sails. They need constant maintenance to stop small problems like chafe before they get worse, and FALKEN does some serious miles. These sails already have 40,000 miles on them, and we’ve still got another 6,000 or so the rest of this season alone.
Back in San Cristobal, I noticed some small tears in the leech of the jib topsail. We put some tape on them, which of course didn’t last, and now the largest of the tears — along the top seam where the clew patch is sewed in — has gotten slightly worse after 3,000 miles and will need a proper repair in Marquesas. However, the closest sail loft is in Tahiti, so I’ve contacted our sailmaker in Sweden and am working on arranging some materials and glue to be sent out with a crew joining for the next leg. Hopefully we can enact some simple repairs on the lawn ashore to see us through.
The mainsail also needs some work. FALKEN has laminated UK X-Drive sails, a departure in construction from the sturdy Hydranet woven sails that ISBJORN has had for 60,000+ miles. The core of the X-Drive construction are black carbon strands that are laid out along the load paths of the sail, then sandwiched between several layers of material, the outermost ‘taffeta’ consisting of lightweight dyneema sailcloth for chafe and UV protection. This outer layer tends to chafe in hard-wearing spots — near the spreaders, when the sail is fully eased downwind, and at the reef points in the leech when the sail is reefed down and crumpled onto the boom. If you look closely there are already myriad small patches where we’ve already fixed some trouble areas, and on this trip, I’ve noticed a few more. They’ll be simple to repair, but it means we’ll have to de-rig the mainsail, which at 220-pounds, isn’t so simple.
Lastly, we’ve had some issues with the batten receptacles along the luff coming apart, their covers popping off. I brought some spares with me from Sweden, and it’s an easy fix, but we have to devise a way to better secure the covers for the next half of the season. I went aloft yesterday to have a look and brainstorm (right now they’re held on with duct tape on the two that had previously popped off). I think we can drill and tap a small hole for a set screw, which should solve the issue, but again that will require de-rigging the mainsail.
Last but not least, and perhaps most importantly, the water maker has been giving us trouble all year long. We have a Spectra Cape Horn Extreme unit, same as on ISBJORN, and while it’s quite simple and has worked flawlessly, lately it’s taking a very long time for the water to get down to a drinkable PPM measurement. We’ve got spare parts on the way with another crewmember, and a lot of troubleshooting I’ve done underway indicates that we need to change the membrane out. Thankfully it’s continued to work just well enough for us to keep the tanks full on this passage, but we need a proper solution before the second half of the season.
All of this of course is maintenance on top of all the routine stuff we do year-round to keep the boat running. Winch servicing, cleaning, running rigging servicing, etc etc etc. So, Emily, Aidan & I have some work to do in Nuku Hiva! But with ten days between passages, we should have plenty of time.
Onward we go, slowly on the home stretch to Hiva Oa.
– Andy
April 23, 2025 – 150 miles out, lightening, Pacific Ocean near Hiva Oa
Just finished the 12 to 3AM shift. It is April 23rd, and we are about 150 miles from Hiva Oa. We have been sailing way off course to keep moving. It is so frustrating. The next morning, we learned there was no mileage gained on the 150 NM remaining.
The night air was extremely heavy and humid. Dark cloud banks blanketed the night sky. Even so, the Southern Cross, Big Dipper, Milky Way, and other notable stars were present along with the occasional shooting star. At various points during the watch, flashes of lightning appeared in the distant sky. During the day, the sun is blazing hot. It feels like the sun’s rays are searing your skin. There is no cover.
The repair list for Falken grows. Our next shift was much as expected, 10 to 14 true wind steering, 185 at 4 to 6 knots. It’s slow going, and the distance to the Marquess feels like it is growing with time. We have had three full days of this light-air sailing. It is challenging to steer, requiring focus and concentration. At day 16, the heat and lack of sleep are taking a toll on everyone. We count down the number of watches only to add more shifts as the days extend.
We have to work hard mentally to block out the negative and the cooler night sails help boost our spirits. Good wind and easy sailing. We feel an expanded sense of accomplishment as we draw closer to the land we travel. The night sky was full of splendor. We are less than 70 NM. With any luck if the wind holds, we will make landfall tomorrow. Tomorrow will make day 17 at sea. Pretty crazy.
-Kim (Crew)
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