06:00 UTC | 41°13.5N 156°40.4W
Sing-A-Longing
Good morning from Falken!
Today is set to be the calmest day of our trip so far, waves subdued, wind veering off more south-east, light clouds. All that means we’re going around the center of the high pressure system that was our target since the departure. What an exhilarating ride it has been, beating upwind non-stop directly north for 6 straight days!
I had a good sleep last night, ready for 6am watch. During the watch Daniel and I did a deck walk this morning to check that everything is in its place (it was). Jim also took out his 360 camera for some shots. Adam and Zoe (happy birthday!) keeping us good company with lessons and chats.
What ahead of us is a mostly downwind sail to Prince Rupert, but a very exciting one. Last night we got weather debrief from Alex about a low pressure from the Bering sea sending whiplashes from north-west, plus some uncertainty about how the high pressure moves closer to Prince Rupert. This makes it an interesting few days going fast and closely watching the weather, and I’m very much looking forward to it.
The crew is happy, everyone seems to be getting good rest, enjoying watches and time in between. Some unpacked sleeping bags and took out jumpers and beanies as temperatures keep dropping each night. Dinner time is always a highlight of the day - hearty meal feels so great at sea, and sharing stories of the day brings everyone closer as we progress in our journey.
Onward to Prince Rupert!
Nikolay
View more passage logs
Onwards and upwards
Today is set to be the calmest day of our trip so far, waves subdued, wind veering off more south-east, light clouds. What an exhilarating ride it has been, beating upwind non-stop directly north for 6 straight days! What ahead of us is a mostly downwind sail to Prince Rupert, but a very exciting one. This makes it an interesting few days going fast and closely watching the weather, and I’m very much looking forward to it. The crew is happy, everyone seems to be getting good rest, enjoying watches and time in between.
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.
