Hot Heat & Cold Mango
April 24, 2025, 2033 Ship’s Time | 60 Miles East of Hiva Oa | Sailing
It’s HOT. And very humid. This equatorial sailing—nothing can prepare you for the heat! When you sleep, whatever side of your body is against the cushions and the sheet leaves a sweaty imprint. It’s like a crime scene outline, but in sweat. It’s gross.
Outside, it’s nicer in the breeze, but then you’ve got to avoid the sun. We have an umbrella rigged up in the cockpit to provide a little extra shade, despite the clear superstitious implications (umbrellas onboard, like bananas, are very bad luck at sea). With the wind lighter now and FALKEN sailing gybing angles to keep the sails full, there’s even less apparent wind moving across the boat. The only shade before noon is a small sliver next to the mast on the port side, which has become a popular spot for the on-watch while taking turns helming.
FALKEN can’t have a bimini shade over the helm when we’re under sail—the running backstays would interfere with it. Frankly, while I enjoy the shade of a good bimini, I hate them in practice. You can’t see the sails and they’re always in the way. So instead, we take turns on the helm while the other watch-standers, in the highest heat of the day, hide in the shade by the mast or under the dodger, or escape down below for a respite from the sun. It works. Today, Erik introduced an added wrinkle on the helm—every so often he simply grabbed the freshwater hose and sprayed himself down. He declared it the best spot on the boat.
After dinner tonight, Emily and I presented a little pre-landfall treat to try and beat the heat. Several days ago, Emily introduced an after-dinner “cold water cocktail”—which is as simple as it sounds, a glass of water from a jug that’s been in the fridge! After these hot days in the sun, nothing tastes so good.
Almost, anyway. Tonight we upped the ante and, after our cold water cocktail, distributed mango grog—two shots of rum in a tall stainless glass, topped with ice-cold mango puree that’s been hiding in the bottom of the fridge since leaving San Cristobal. The jury is out on whether it was the greatest thing we’ve had on the passage thus far, or if it was just a nasty tease because we couldn’t have seconds. Morale improved. Mission accomplished.
We’re 60 miles out now, but still not sailing in a straight line. The breeze is up a touch, so at least we’re sailing faster now in the wrong direction. There’s not enough wind to set the pole and sail dead-downwind, so we’re sailing gybing angles to keep the sails full and the boat moving. We should be able to gybe in a few more hours, which will put us on a favored course for Hiva Oa, and with luck we’ll make landfall in daylight tomorrow.
Only a few more sweaty sleep off-watches to go.
// Andy
andy@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.