DEEPWATER SWIMMING
24º 23’ N, 113º 39’ W
1428 Ship’s Time
Sailing
After poke tuna nachos (corn tortilla chips + Ryan’s guac + leftover poke tuna), we stopped the boat for a swim. The water had been glassy since shortly after sunrise and we finally gave up on ghosting along at 2-3 knots and fired up the diesel. The sun was out, music was playing in the cabin, and with a sloppy weather forecast on the horizon for tonight and tomorrow morning, we took advantage and took the plunge.
The water here is 10,000-feet deep, and extremely blue. Crustal clear, you open your eyes underwater and can just see forever, right into the literal abyss. Temps are in the mid-70s, so for me who’s used to swimming in Sweden in the summertime in the mid-60s, it was downright balmy. Most of the crew partook, with Eric standing watch on the cockpit and doing the final headcount to make sure we all came back aboard. It’s been a while since I did an offshore swim, and man it’s so fun.
Now we’re in prep mode for some anticipated heavy-ish weather tonight and into the morning. The boat’s cleaned up inside and out, the staysail is rigged and flaked on the foredeck, and the off-watches are resting. Just as I started writing this the wind is starting to fill in from the SSW, and we’re sailing again, now on a close-reach with the yankee and full main. If I had to bet, I’d say we’ll be reefed down before midnight, and maybe wet by sun-up with some rain squalls in the offing as part of a weak cold front that’s going to pass over us tonight and tomorrow morning.
We’ve also decided to stop short in Cabo San Lucas. The marina there has space for us, and being that we’re behind schedule thanks to a very light-wind passage thus far, the crew voted to pull in, so if you see us on the tracker in Cabo, we didn’t just stop off to party :) Mary and me, plus the incoming staff for the next leg, might move the boat up to La Paz in-between trips, but that remains a future problem for now. And in any case, it’s only a two-hour drive from La Paz to Cabo, so if we end up staying put it’s not going to mess up the big-picture plans.
// Andy
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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.