June 23, 2024 | 2100 UTC
We are making steady progress towards Ireland. We reached 1,000 nautical miles roughly an hour ago and FALKEN has yet to slow down. Today the crew was greeted with a variety of weather as we are sailing on the outskirts of a low-pressure zone. The morning was filled with a thick, cool fog and calm seas until 0902 UTC when the swell began to pick up again. In the afternoon, we had a brief moment of clarity as we gybed to a starboard tack. The warm weather and sun allowed the crew to enjoy the good weather window before we were engulfed in fog again shortly after dinner. Nonetheless, the crew remains in high spirits through the weather. The crew has made tremendous strides in helming, especially with the sea state today. I am thankful to have this experience with them and to watch the crew develop in confidence in just under a week. As we are nearing the coast of Ireland, the crew is prepping for FALKEN’s arrival into Galway. Most of the crew found the raising of the Ireland flag bittersweet, as it is an indication of the crew's success during the passage as we near the end.
- Athena
59ºNorthApprentice
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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.