#11. FALKEN | Victoria to San francisco | thanks mother nature

47 06.2N 125 26.9W | 22:45 Local time

OMG! The stars! That’s all…

OK not really - but honestly, it’s magical out here tonight. The girls are steering in 15 knots of wind with full sails on a broad reach underneath a glittering cloak of sparkles and we all feel the fairy dust effect. It’s dark, but I’m convinced everyone is smiling, pondering, marveling at how extraordinary our universe is. The Milky Way is so defined and hanging so low, the helms are using the edge of it as something to steer towards to stay on course.

As we reflected over Mia’s coconut and ginger curry for dinner, it’s been a dream-field day since the moment we woke up at 6am to lift the hook. The sky was just brightening and we hoisted the main in the lee of the Broken Group, and rose just as we passed the last cluster of rocks. Ahead was thick, thick fog and honestly if we didn’t have the modern wonders of satellites and space rockets, we might have wondered if we were sailing towards the edge of the world, about to fall off a waterfall. Around mid morning, the fog cleared and the North Westerlies gently started to fill in and by dinner time we turned off the engine and started to sail. It was a wonderful, peaceful, gentle day. Thanks Mother Nature. You are warming us ladies in softly.

Also, happy birthday to Catherine’s husband :) She’s looking up at the glorious night sky, 50 nautical miles from shore, and is thinking about you. She told me you’d enjoy a message from us. If we had a bottle, we’d write it in there and throw it overboard ;) But … hopefully this feels just as magical! Happy, happy birthday. Enjoy your warm cozy beds everyone. And we will enjoy our less cozy, less warm, but absolutely breathtakingly beautiful outside world.

- Nikki