8°21.5' N 026°17.2' W
October 9, 2025 | 8°21.5' N 026°17.2' W | Halfway mark and Wahoo Sashimi!
Joining Adrienne, I didn’t know what to expect, having no experience offshore and very little sailing experience overall, but after 9 days and over 1500 nautical miles all my expectations have been exceeded. Both in tough ways, experiencing a lot of seasickness for the first few days; and in happy ones, like full days of exceptional downwind sailing. Led by skipper Eric and mate Tim, the crew, and our home-away-from-home, Adrienne, take it all in stride. We support and look out for each other every day to make sure everyone is as happy and healthy as can be.
For the last few days we’ve been in the doldrums, which means lack of wind and rain squalls popping up left and right (or based on our current winds, windward and leeward). Adrienne seems to be immune to them, even at times when a bit of rain would be a welcomed respite from the tropical heat.
Life onboard can be a little bit different than on land, so here is a snapshot from this morning on Adrienne:
5:30 AM: I get woken up by the off-coming watch to get ready for my 6 AM start. Living on land, I’d be dreading this early start, but on Adrienne, we all live in a different reality.
6:00 AM: I pop my head out of the hatch and see the smiling faces of my shipmates David, Lance, Andrew, and Brittany. They’ve been up for the last 4 hours keeping Adrienne on course and looking out for squalls, but now is the time for them to sleep and team A to take over. Vilgot is up already, with Jim, Nicole, and I following close behind.
6:15 AM: We witnessed the most beautiful sunrise of the trip so far.
7:00 AM: We opt for the luxury breakfast, prepared by chef Vilgot, with pancakes and lingonberry jam and Nutella to keep us happy.
7:45 AM: Coffee time.
8:30 AM: We planned a busy schedule for ourselves this morning starting with a workout circuit. On the bow, core exercises; lower body amidship; upper body on the stern deck, with the last station being the helm, as someone needs to steer Adrienne after all.
8:50 AM: Rolled out the Genoa.
9:00 AM: Avoid a couple big squalls that we’ve watched develop over the last few hours.
10:30 AM: Start preparing lunch. Today, we’re having couscous with aubergines and sausages.
12:00 PM: Lunch time. Rest of the crew has woken up and we're ready to eat like a big happy family. This also marks the end of the watch, so after lunch team B takes over again and we slowly rinse off the salt, sweat, and sunscreen, and rest.
Overall, every day is filled with kindness, fun, and beauty, and I am grateful to be part of this amazing crew. To Chloe, I love you. Thank you for supporting me in this wild idea, and give Lou a belly scratch from me.
Pete, Crew
PS. I have to go now as Andrew just caught a huge beautiful fish, so we’re changing tonight’s menu from halloumi stroganoff to Wahoo sashimi on rice!
PPS. From David, this was the best day ever! We celebrated our halfway mark for this passage together in the forward cockpit eating the sashimi fish. Just as we did, a rain squall blew over us, and left us with beautiful pink sunset clouds. Tears in eyes.
ADRIENNE II Skipper
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.