Day 7 At-Sea
13º 00’ N, 045º 27’ W
12 February 2024
2204 Ship’s Time
13º 00’ N, 045º 27’ W
Steering 285º at 9-10 knots
Welp, that’s not only the first time I’ve eaten ice cream offshore, but also the first time I’ve eaten hand-made ice cream on a boat! Manot outdid himself in the galley last night, spending several hours whipping—literally—a batch of homemade chocolate ice cream together by hand. I’m not even sure how he got the recipe. Mia’s onboard recipe book is extensive, but I’m positive it doesn’t include ice cream. Nonetheless, to celebrate crossing the halfway mark yesterday, we had hand-made chocolate ice cream for dessert tonight, topped with fresh, cold pineapple, and what a treat.
The bonkers tradewind sailing continues, faster and steadier than ever. Each time I check the log for the previous 24-hour distance run, the numbers get bigger. From 10pm yesterday until 10pm today we’ve covered 213 miles. That’s an average pace of almost 9 knots, and just with the white sails. We haven’t laid a finger on the mainsheet since jibing the rig around back on Day 1! Laying in my bunk down below I can just feel the boat accelerate down each wave, the water rushing by my head against the hull and the Watt & Sea hydrogenerator taking off with a spinning, buzzing ZIIIIIIIINNNNG! which sounds uncannily like a big fish taking out all the line off a deep-sea reel. The sailing is at once exhilarating and effortless.
I warned the crew that the second half of the trip would go by much faster than the first. There is no more acclimatization period now that we’ve crested the peak and are on the downslope. The minutes and hours, while still moving slowly, tick by with a smoothness that was lacking in the first half of the passage when folks were still getting their sea legs and learning how to sleep at all hours of the day and night. There’s a saying in cycling that goes something like, “Pedal slowly first—slow is smooth, and smooth eventually becomes fast.” The same applies to ocean sailing, I think. Ease into a passage slowly and before you know it you’ve passed the halfway mark and the ship is running like clockwork. Smooth.
The weather finally feels familiar again. After days of yellowish haze and cloudless skies from the African continent, we’re back into the puffy tradewind cumulus and heavy humidity that feels Caribbean. I wore a light jacket the first few nights at sea, but those days are over and it’s shorts and t-shirt around the clock. We’ll shower again tomorrow, moving the clean-up routine from once every third day to every other day to ward off the stickiness that comes with the higher humidity.
And so it goes onboard FALKEN. The watch changes. The helmspeople take turns. The coffeepot is refilled. And on.
— Andy
andy@59-north.com
View more passage logs
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.