#11. FALKEN | Victoria to San francisco | Whales, Radar and gratitude
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 decider 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 vis 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 look out 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
