Day 1 at-sea
15º 09’ N, 026º 22’ W
February 7, 2024
0536 Ship’s Time
15º 09’ N, 026º 22’ W
Steering 215º at about 8 knots
The tiniest sliver of moon is rising in the southeast, creating a surprisingly bright light in the hazy air. The Southern Cross constellation is aligned perfectly with the end of the poled-out jib, making it easy for the helmspeople to steer a straight course. The wind is up a touch, and it’s smooth sailing to the SSW.
We left Mindelo in a dusty haze around 1000 after a leisurely breakfast and after checking off the last of the pre-departure items. I had been feeling less anxious than ever in the few days prior, but those moments leaving the dock always get my heart beating with that special combination of nerves and excitement. A few hundred yards from the dock, after stowing lines and fenders, we hoisted the mainsail and bore away onto a broad reach and out into the channel between Sao Vincente and Santo Antao, and with that we were off.
As expected, the winds built in the channel and by noon FALKEN was surfing down waves and touching 14 knots, with just the mainsail set. Windspeeds topped 30+ in the sharp acceleration zone where the gentle trades are squeezed between the high peaks of the neighboring islands and shot out like a cannon. Whitecaps were all around us, flying fish scurrying out of the way of our bow wave. The steering was challenging, especially right off the bat, but everyone got a turn on the helm and did well. A few hours later we left the strongest winds behind, set the jib tops’l on the pole, and moseyed off to the WSW on port tack. Manot served up the traditional first-night-at-sea lasagne and the watches began.
As I type, we’re getting ready to jibe onto starboard tack and start making some westing on what will be our preferred tack. The weather forecast shows the steadiest tradewinds remain around 13-14º N latitude, so we put some southing in right off the bat. So while it appears that we’re headed well off course on the chart, it’s actually part of our routing strategy. We expect to be able to stay on starboard tack now for several days in a gentle band of NE’ly breeze.
Jibing the downwind rig is a whole process, with poles, preventers, and guylines strewn about the foredeck and the cockpit. We’ll save that description for a later blog. For now, we’ll wait for the first glow of daylight and the watch change to jibe this ship around.
— Andy
andy@59-north.com
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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.