37°35.5’N 154°02.4’W
37°35.5’N 154°02.4’W
05:00 UTC / 19:00 Local time
Upon taking the helm at noon today, the NYC watch team noticed steering issues: looseness in the wheel accompanied by a tremor. Mate Mary quickly diagnosed and fixed one of the issues by adjusting the steering cables; however, the tremor remained. By this time, Skipper Alex was up, having been awakened by the fixing and remaining tremor. They quickly diagnosed a likely tag-along on the rudder, but what was it, and how to dislodge it? They decided to inspect the rudder with the Insta360 with an underwater housing, mounted to a long carbon (aka weak plastic) arm. The Insta360 is now at sea, the arm broken, its secrets untold.
Without the images, an idea took hold—to sail a 360 circle to see if the offending item would come loose. The crew made the maneuver, and like magic, a large brightly colored bucket dislodged and floated away. Alex and Mary and a 360, heroes.
A couple of hours after the “360 incident,” at 15:03 local time, the crew logged 1000nm into our journey! Apprentice Lovis was at the helm, and a celebratory cheer was raised by the crew on deck. Congratulations to all!
We will update more along the way.
Tasha | FALKEN Crew
crew@59-north.com
View more passage logs
”For some things, we will never be ready.” - Moana 2
After 852 miles of open ocean sailing, the crew of Falken dropped anchor in Moorea's Cook's Bay—not with a quiet glide in, but surfing down waves in a squall, breaking speed records and cheering each other on through the rain. What started as a plan to "just dip a toe" into offshore sailing turned into something harder to explain: the worse the conditions got, the more alive everyone felt. Turns out the question was never whether the crew was ready—it was whether they even needed to be.
Kauehi conundrum
Kauehi atoll was always on the itinerary—until the forecast made it a gamble not worth taking. Squalls, bommies, a tidal pass, and no clean escape route: sometimes the hardest call in sailing is the one that keeps you out of a place, not in it. The Tuamotus will have to wait.
Hove-to!
Falken is too fast—a problem most sailors would kill for, yet here we are, tacking back and forth across the Pacific just to kill time. A rogue low pressure system south of Tahiti has stolen the trades and scrambled our timing for the tidal window into Kauehi's pass, leaving us hove-to 45 miles short of our target in the Tuamotus. Salt licorice, dream sandwich debates, and a philosophical question about mermaid reproduction are helping pass the night.