19°36.4' N 026°43.2' W
October 13, 2025 | 20:10 UTC | 19°36.4' N 026°43.2' W | Our First Tack
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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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.