Glums & glows
003º52’S, 096º09W
April 10, 2130 Ship’s Time | 003º52’S, 096º09W
Full Mainsail & Jib Top, Happily Reaching
Based on the heading above, I’m sure you can assume the mood aboard today. Anyone who has spent time with Andy on a 59º North passage will be innately familiar with Glows and Glums, our nightly ritual of sharing personal highs and lows of the day, followed by the cathartic sound of your choice. The majority of today’s glows were simple and truly what this trip is all about. We’re doing a steady 9.0 kts SOG, with the sail reflecting the nearly-full moon onto the smiling faces of the watch. The cool breeze of the trades tempers the unrelenting hotbox this boat has become in the past few days and relieves us from the drone of the engine. The Bangers and Mash for dinner were particularly excellent, the perfect fuel for a night of riding this sleigh.
Eric interestingly shared that his glow for the day was the rather painful peppering his hands received in yesterday’s early morning squall—our only glimpse of double-digit speeds in the time since we weighed anchor in the Galapagos. As someone who is deep in the process of learning better strategies for race navigation and weather systems, cruising is always a humbling arena to practice in, and the last few days have been full of wind-deprived glums. I wish I could name-drop, but at some US Sailing Summit one of the panelists gave the expert advice to “not speak up when the boat is slow” at the risk of becoming the scapegoat for a poor result—the room laughed at the honesty. The Doldrums are a new experience for me; there is no avoiding the slow. If these past 72 hours were a race, I would already be at the bar.
That said, today was markedly different. Today, powered by the building SE’ly trades (and a full round of showers), the entire boat was glum-free.
// Aidan Gray
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.