dolphins and asteroids
January 21, 2025, 20:17 UTC | 19º 50.9’ N / 022º 45.8’ W | Dolphins and Asteroids
It is now 19:17 local time onboard. Yesterday we changed the time back one hour; we have a few time zones to travel through before we reach Antigua and will change the boat time back one hour every third day or so. About this time last night, the wind finally picked up enough to turn off the engine and roll the jib out, and we have been sailing ever since. The wind has been a bit light today, still in the lower 10s, but is due to pick up to around 15-20 knots sometime tomorrow.
The last 24 hours have been amazing, sailing in almost a flat sea with a gentle swell rolling in. Dolphins have been coming by, visiting us at the bow many times a day. Yesterday, the evening watch saw what they thought was an asteroid—the sail lit up and a bright light illuminated the sky for a few seconds.
All is good onboard. We have truly settled into the routine of life at sea: reading books, chatting in the cockpit, making lots of tea (and some coffee), and Janette even had her painting supplies out today. Once again, it has been really fun to read the comments (they will be sent to us via Iridium), so if you read this blog, please make a comment below.
From Mia & the FALKEN crew
mia@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.