20° 28.241’N, 039°15.961’W
January 26, 2025, 10:32 UTC | 08:33 Ship’s Time | 20° 28.241’N / 039°15.961’W | Jeannette “The Brave”
I can’t believe it has already been 9 days since this exploring adventure began. I truly believe Mother Nature gives you what you need at the time that you need it. And right now, I feel that this epic journey was meant to come into my path (of course, with a little help from my husband Arjan who brought it into my life).
Our dear Brandon has already introduced all of our crew and he named me Jeannette “the Brave,” turning fears into memories. This couldn’t be more accurate because that is exactly how it feels for me. I have been wondering for quite a long time what offshore sailing means to me—is it my dream or is it a nightmare? Am I made for this or do I just want to want this? Can I handle THE ocean? Mother Nature has been giving me exactly what I’ve needed, from temporary blindness (literally 72 hours without being able to see sharply and unable to read due to a side effect of my Scopolamine patch against seasickness). Maybe that was meant for me to assimilate this journey more easily and to stop literally watching and looking at every possible risk before leaving Las Palmas.
Then Nature started pretty mild with these nice swells about 1–1.5m high with a period around 11 seconds. So nice and calm that I could literally feel the ocean breathing underneath us, and this is just such a powerful feeling—becoming one with the ocean. For those reading this, you should know I am the one with the least sailing experience on this ship, and that’s probably why I feel the safest. I know everyone is there for me, willing to back me up.
Steering at the helm has been quite an adventure—feeling afraid, doubting myself, having confidence, and being scared again. But all in all, it has been amazing, having Emily (our captain) and Mia (our mate) coaching me with endless patience and kindness. Or having dear Paolo or Vilgot behind my shoulder when I am at the helm, like my guardian angels giving me emotional and technical support.
Mother Nature has been challenging me more and more after starting with baby steps. I laughed enormously a couple of nights ago when I just said, “Look, what a perfect sky full of stars, so calm,” and I went behind the helm. All of a sudden, this huge squall comes up, with wind from 30 to 34 knots. Mia, our mate, just stayed next to me, guiding me through every step of the way and not taking over the helm. It lasted quite a bit (it was probably minutes, but for me it felt SO LONG!), and then this impressive calmness and peaceful feeling came down from the sky and I relaxed completely. I felt just like such a BIG GIRL steering this GORGEOUS 65-foot racing sailboat right in the middle of a squall in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This must be one of the most empowering feelings I have ever felt. I am so thankful for it. From that moment, I just feel this inner trust in myself that I can stay calm and manage the challenge. Whenever it gets heavy, I go back to that moment. ;)
It has been an enormous challenge, because everyone knows I am not a morning person and I need to put a spoon under my eyelids when I have the night shift between 2 and 6. After 3–4 days I felt totally exhausted, asking myself why am I putting myself up to this. But somewhere between that tiredness and exhaustion, somehow the Universe manages to amaze me again with these amazing moonrises, with dolphins or whales, with flying fish, with a totally impressive deep black sky, this huge squall with awful changing winds, or this open sky full of stars looking down on me.
I love this wonderful comforting feeling that some dear family members of mine are just watching and taking care of me from upon the stars, feeling incredibly proud of me. Just as much as I am proud of myself just for being here and living every moment of it.
@Mi cielo y mis amores: los amo con toda mi alma y mi corazón y los tengo aquí conmigo. ;o)
Cielo, porfis explícale a mi mamá y familia en México cómo pueden seguir este blog. ;o)
Arjan: Please tell my mother to read the blogs (and explain to her how to find them/read them :) )
- Jeannette (A Mexican girl who fell in love 18 years ago with this incredible Dutch guy and has been living this wonderful adventure with him and my family ever since)
crew@59-north.com
View more passage logs
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.