Heading Offshore

July 21, 2024 | Day 1 at Sea
Offshore Bergen
The first 24 hours of any trip with a heavy upwind start are always going to be chaotic. This past day has not been an exception. A scene akin to the climax of the film Triangle of Sadness came to mind as Mia and I handed over to one another at 10pm last night. “There is a bucket stationed in every area,” she said to me, to the familiar background track of hurling. Someone had gone for round two. But I’ll tell you—I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much puke come with so many smiling faces. The crew are determined to soak up every last second that they can on deck. And so on they go, braving the undressing and dressing manoeuvre again and again and again. Impressive!
The good news is that the wind has veered around to the west now as forecast. So hopefully we will have a bit of reprieve from the bashing soon. It’s already tracking round to the right, with Kaitie on the helm doing a stellar job following her course whilst the crew of Jaime and Lindsey trim sails to the changing wind. We had the staysail up all night with three reefs in as the wind exceeded 30 knots. Now happily flying a slightly reefed jib and one reef in the main, zooming straight at Amsterdam at 8 knots! But now thinking that through… you can probably see that on the tracker :)
— Nikki
Offshore Bergen
The first 24 hours of any trip with a heavy upwind start are always going to be chaotic. This past day has not been an exception. A scene akin to the climax of the film Triangle of Sadness came to mind as Mia and I handed over to one another at 10pm last night. “There is a bucket stationed in every area,” she said to me, to the familiar background track of hurling. Someone had gone for round two. But I’ll tell you—I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much puke come with so many smiling faces. The crew are determined to soak up every last second that they can on deck. And so on they go, braving the undressing and dressing manoeuvre again and again and again. Impressive!
The good news is that the wind has veered around to the west now as forecast. So hopefully we will have a bit of reprieve from the bashing soon. It’s already tracking round to the right, with Kaitie on the helm doing a stellar job following her course whilst the crew of Jaime and Lindsey trim sails to the changing wind. We had the staysail up all night with three reefs in as the wind exceeded 30 knots. Now happily flying a slightly reefed jib and one reef in the main, zooming straight at Amsterdam at 8 knots! But now thinking that through… you can probably see that on the tracker :)
— Nikki
NikkiHenderson
View more passage logs


Hat overboard!
On June 4, we reviewed our passage plan before our departure from the marina in Hjellested.


Departure from Bergen!
The crew on the women’s sail training on Isbjorn is settling into a great routine for managing the boat and life onboard.


The sun sets on another journey
The hardest part of sailing across French Polynesia wasn't the night watches, the heat, or the open ocean — it was the prospect of being trapped on a small boat with a group of strangers. First-timer Natalie boards as a self-described land crab and discovers that the sea has a way of reshaping both your sea legs and your assumptions. What follows is dolphins, sharks, the Milky Way in full technicolour, and a crew that somehow made the whole thing better than she ever imagined.
