23:24 UTC | 31°46.953’ N 047°50.57’ W
Sailing
In my usual world of racing, if we see a wind shift up ahead we might wait 2 minutes before it reaches us. On this passage, we have sailed upwind for seven days and 1,200 nautical miles to find our wind shift. Our reward is to finally point towards the Canary Islands. Still sailing upwind though!
Today, seven days into our trip, my seasickness is finally gone and the memory of it is fading too. The first 2–3 days my body and mind were fighting it out and I could do nothing other than lie down, throw up, or curse the person who signed me up for 21 days of this. Today I’m happy I’m here!
Morale is high aboard Adrienne! Today we deep-cleaned the whole boat. Everybody is sleeping well, we sail well, and we eat well. Thanks to our meteorologist/skipper, we even understand how the weather works and why we were unable to get above the Azores High for those nice downwind angles.
I look forward to the remaining 14 days of total immersion in nature. All the day-to-day stressors of work, the internet, and just the general state of world affairs can’t reach me here. I still really miss home though!
// Knut, Adrienne II Crew
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Final Blog
Falken and her crew arrived safely into port last night around 8pm boat time, 10pm Prince Rupert time. Some spicy weather was anticipated, but luckily the 35kt gusts and 2.5 meter waves were no match for this expert crew. We had an exceptionally smooth docking, despite it being Alex's first time parking this year (!). We all agreed that this was a very special group of people—I for one am so impressed with how everyone stayed so positive, helpful, and appreciative of humor despite an arguably challenging passage. We'll all return home significantly saltier than we were when we left, a mark of a passage properly sailed.
Lessons and a Gift
The biggest lesson is the helm. The lesson here is that even if you don't think you can do it over and over again with no sleep, cold and damp, it has to be done and so it can be done. Flying fish are cool, dolphins are really really cool, but the coolest of them all are the whales. And most of all Alex: "Find your center Carla. Always know where your center is so you can come back to it". He means the helm but it applies to life as well.
Making the most of it
This passage has thrown pretty much every atmospheric condition imaginable at us. It reminds us not only of how much we’ve learned, but of how far we’ve literally come since that acceleration zone off the northwest corner of Oahu. The resilience this group has shown has been nothing short of incredible, and I couldn’t be prouder to be part of it. Maybe that’s why it’s the hardest passages we remember the most. Not because they were easy, but because they reminded us what we’re capable of.
