Day 1
38°29.68N 26°17.58W
June 18, 2024 | 06:30 UTC | 38°29.68N 26°17.58W
The boat is already smelling of coffee as I am getting up. Passing by the port aft bunks, I see them already empty and made to perfection. In the galley I hear a few quiet “good mornings” as I greet the still sleepy but visibly excited crew. An hour and a half to go before everyone meets on deck. A last phone call, a last stroll down to the shore heads, we are on the doorstep of an adventure.
0800, everyone meets on deck. Chris quickly distributes roles and we get the lines ready to slip. A few moments later we tie up at the fuel dock. There, things slowed down for one last time—waiting for our turn, filling our tanks, chatting, waiting… and finally slipping the lines.
1200, we are sailing! Some of the brightest smiles that I have seen were from people taking the helm of a cool boat like FALKEN for the first time. And today was no exception—all the time spent waiting for this day to arrive after first making the plans, all the excitement, maybe a bit of nerves, then realizing how easy it is to steer, the power, the speed, yet it feels so light… bright smiles!
Later, still smiles. We are sailing upwind, in 10-12 knots of wind. It’s perfect. The sea is smooth, steering is easy, we are gliding. Somewhere at sea in the setting sun, the smell of baking vegetables is spreading through the boat… What a lovely day! - Manot
ManotBerger
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Quadruple digits!
We are still headed north away from Hawaii, though today we have started to veer ever so slightly east. Speaking of miles, we hit quadruple digits today and are currently 1051 nms into our journey to Alaska. The sea state continues to calm down, and the famous North Pacific high is just out of our reach. The next few days will be a delicate dance of riding the outskirts of the high while avoiding the pesky low pressure systems that are dancing nearby. In his very wise words, we need to get north but not too far north, stay south but not too far south, continue heading east but not too far east, and avoid going west but also stay west.
The basics
Nordic Falken and her crew have been in a steady course of NNW since the departure of Hawaii. But! The good thing of all of this is that the promised land on which the high pressure lies has been getting closer and closer, meaning in a couple of days we're gonna see the wind slowly veer all the way to the South, which finally should see us easing the sails and remembering the basics of human nature all over again. The crew have been amazing and we've had everyone come around to push through fatigue, seasickness and soaking wet clothes. On another note we left the tropics a while ago and we can really feel the shift of temperature, long gone are the shorts and foulies have been the norm. Not much more apart from this, my intolerance to upwind sailing still pretty much alive but doing it with a bunch of such amazing human beings makes it worth it worthwhile.
Pacific pace
After some initial adversity, we untied our lines and left the beautiful island of O'ahu behind as we set sail north on an adventure of a lifetime. And that is exactly what we are - a family of strangers brought together by a passion for sailing and a love for the sea. The passage, while at its infancy, has delivered. The wind and seas, stars and sails all set the stage for a fantastic journey. We will see you on the other side with many stories to tell.