February 18, Day 9 | What Does the Deep Sea Say?
So many questions; so many answers—some of us take the time to listen, remaining disconnected from the outside world. Captain Erik set a course for the center of a big high-pressure system the other day for a swim. We sailed to the calm, water skier’s paradise. As we were in the eye of the high, we witnessed clouds and squalls all around us, moving in different directions.
How deep is it where we are swimming, in the absolute center of the Atlantic Ocean? Does the chart mean 2,000 meters? 2,000 fathoms? It’s deep, really deep.
As almost everyone jumped in and climbed out, a few of us stayed in for the duration, opening our eyes underwater; sometimes doing the shark-watch 360 spin, otherwise enjoying the sights of humans plunging in beside Adrienne, trails of air bubbles rising back to the surface, and climbing back aboard with ear-to-ear smiles. That night, “MacGyver” said it was the best day of his life.
Our weather briefing that night indicated projections of 4-5 meter swells resulting from our irritable next-door neighbor to the north, the Big Low. This system was pumping out swells of over 11 meters! These are not the ideal conditions for making pancakes or for sleeping off-watch.
After our initial 3-4 days of bashing upwind, we had incredible sailing on a beam reach for several days, at consistent wind speeds of 12-22 knots. We’ve been blessed by bright moonlight, on both ends of the full moon, to watch the 3-5 meter swells dance around Adrienne, sea spray glowing in the moonlight. Before moonrise, we witness the darkest night skies possible. We receive nice moontans, as the moon illuminates our smiles and the monstrous, moving mountains of water that pass us by over and over again.
Unbelievable—is that swell four meters or five? Does it matter? We appreciate the 11-12 second periods between the giant, friendly swells, constantly aware of our privilege that they are not breaking waves with shorter periods, especially since they are generally broadside, or at best, off our stern quarter.
How far could one of these flying fish fly, if determined to do so? Last night at sunset, one must have flown nearly the distance of a soccer pitch!
The ocean speaks, and we listen. Adrienne is charging, loving the swells, and guarding her crew.
Mahalo,
Ryan, ADRIENNE crew
crew@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.