19°36.4' N 026°43.2' W
Storms and headwinds continue to dissipate in front of Adrienne! Despite an active doldrums, we darted through and missed all major weather. With the doldrums behind us, the northeasterly trade winds have built and carried us through the night and all of today on a close reach. The sea state is quite gentle, so we sail with the full main and genoa in 10-15 knots of wind. However, we get regular wind shifts to the east that allow us to point to the east or north, sometimes as much as 15-20 degrees! With our last waypoint set for Gran Canaria, we focus on one number to rule them all: the Velocity Made Good (VMG)! Cheers sound from the rear cockpit whenever the VMG exceeds 6 knots.
We continue to be well fed, well rested, and happy. Today we had pizza for lunch and Nicole made a big oatmeal cookie! There is no more fresh food, but the freezer is packed and treats keep showing up that keep things interesting and boost morale. Unfortunately, a fish shook the hook this evening right before dinner, so we will have to wait another day for fresh fish.
At 19 degrees north, the temperature has finally dropped. Cool evenings mean light jackets and much more comfortable sleeping. The biggest treat today was a pod of dolphins that swam with us for 20 minutes! They showed up on the port side and then swam several circles around Adrienne. Everyone woke up or stopped what they were doing to enjoy the visit. The pod was clearly having a blast swimming with Adrienne and seemed to enjoy hearing the crew’s whoops and cheers when they porpoised out of the water.
As we near the end of our passage, we are having a friendly competition to see who can most closely predict our arrival time. You can play along from home! We have 790 miles to go! We were on a starboard tack since leaving Salvador, Brazil, 2,270 nautical miles! After dinner tonight we made our first tack, and since Gran Canaria is located at a bearing of approximately 45 degrees, we will likely tack many more times in the coming days. As we learned this evening, it might be possible to hold a VMG close to 5 knots on each tack. Winds are predicted to be 10-15 knots along our path, but possibly much lower near the end of the passage. All arrival predictions were made onboard this evening! The winner gets to buy the first round of beers in Gran Canaria!
Andrew | ADRIENNE II crew
crew@59-north.com
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”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.