Party Time!
2200 UTC | 31° 55.123’ N 039° 59.969’ W
Sailing
Since then we’ve been motoring through a high with slowly but consistently decreasing breeze. We furled the genoa right at daybreak, and dropped the main before sunset. Up until then it wasn’t flogging and was providing a nice bit of shade.
To fill the time while we motored on glassy clear blue ocean seas, we’ve had yoga sessions and a bit of weight lifting. We put out two fishing lines which I think should double our chances but nothing so far. Our resident vegan Knut said he’s rooting for the fish. Perhaps that’s why we’ve had no bites.
What the crew didn’t know, is that Erik and I had been planning a bit of a party all day to celebrate our halfway point. To start, meteorologist/ skipper extraordinaire Erik set up the weather so that we motored into a perfectly glassy calm evening and could go for a swim. This was certainly no coincidence, it was arranged just for the party. We did some swan dives and a few laps around the somewhat stationary boat. The water was cool, clear, and seemingly about a million feet deep (no idea how many meters, sorry Anton).
After the swim we ushered all the crew aft and had them turn around and watch the sunset as Erik, Anton, and I set up streamers and a party sign. I knew this would be a big hit, as it’s exactly what my mom had done for my birthday each year growing up (and sometimes still now). We enjoyed dinner, vegan coffee cake for dessert, and finished with Glums and Glows. My Glow list for the day was long, and I feel like I didn’t even mention it all.
Although we are all out here to sail, and ideally sail fast, sometimes these days of calm motoring provide a much needed respite on long voyages. After beating up wind for over a week, we have a chance to mix up the routine, slow down, and relax a bit. We all now look forward to some more upwind sailing tomorrow afternoon (potentially on a port tack this time) and keep our fingers crossed for some reaching in our future.
All is well aboard the mighty ship Adrienne II.
Delaney Vorwick
View more passage logs
Last night in the Southern Hemisphere!
At midnight, Joey's watch sang happy birthday under a sky full of stars; by 0930, the crew had already swum in 5,000 meters of Pacific blue, chased rainbows through a golden squall, and eaten chocolate chip pancakes with Moorea pineapple. That's the doldrums for you—the wind dies and life somehow gets fuller. Tomorrow, Neptune comes to collect his due as SV Nordic Falken crosses the equator for the first time.
First squall of the trip!
"We're gonna get our ass whooped" — not the sunrise greeting anyone had in mind, but Jim called it. The oldest and sharpest hand on board steered them straight through the squall, soaked to the bone and loving every minute of it. He's got a message for his wife, and it turns out she was right about the water.
Sextants, Polynesian Wayfinding, Captain Cook, and Tupaia, Oh My!
Somewhere north of Tahiti and south of Hawaii, aboard a 65-foot rocket of a sailboat loaded with GPS and Starlink, we pulled out a sextant. Not as a novelty—as a navigation tool. Because it turns out the 2,500-mile passage from Tahiti to Hawaii is less a ocean crossing and more a living museum of how humans have always answered the same stubborn question: where am I, and how do I get home? Captain Cook had his chronometers and math; his Polynesian crewmate Tupaia had the stars, the swells, and a map of the Central Pacific stored entirely in his head—and somehow, they were asking the exact same thing.
