pre-departure
37.1042° N, 8.6741° W
January 5, 2024
Lagos, Portugal
I am sitting onboard FALKEN in Lagos. It’s January 5 and tomorrow is the official start of the 2024 season. Andy and I came down to Portugal on the 30th to have a mini-vacation with our son Axel, celebrate the new year, and let Axel play on FALKEN and explore the beaches. Ever since we first came to Portugal in 2012, it has held a special place in our hearts, and it was great to show it to Axel this time.
After our last passage in November, FALKEN has been on the hard in Portimao getting a few upgrades and some well-deserved love after a busy 2023 season. Adam and Alex arrived on Tuesday night; Adam finished some projects on FALKEN and Alex will be our skipper for this leg. We splashed on Wednesday and motored over to the marina—no sails, since they have been at the sailmaker getting looked over and cleaned. The sails came back and we figured it was best to put them on straight away, after giving the boat a good scrub to get rid of the boatyard dust.
Rain was scheduled for Thursday, and high gusts on Friday, so Wednesday evening looked to be the best option to get the main back on. As soon as we got it ready, it started to rain, and halfway through the wind picked up, but we muscled it on anyway and were happy to get the job done. The boat is now provisioned, cleaned, and ready for crew to come tomorrow. We have been following the weather and it looks like a Sunday departure to avoid some stronger headwinds on the 12th. We will get another look at the weather tomorrow and passage plan together with the crew.
Now it’s time for a shower, dinner, and a good night’s sleep!
——
January 6
Crew arrived today at 13:00 to FALKEN. After a few days with rain on and off, we had clear sky and beautiful weather today. Back in 2019, every single time crew arrived to the boat, it rained. Thankfully, we had sunshine today and we started the day by walking around the deck from bow to stern showing everyone the boat, followed by safety briefings down below.
We had dinner ashore booked at 6:30—early for the Portuguese, but since we are departing tomorrow, an early bed will be nice! Lots of happy chats around and we didn’t leave the restaurant until 9 pm. Time for bed now and up bright and early for coffee and breakfast. The aim is to depart around lunchtime. We’ll sit down after breakfast to look at the route, check the GRIBs, and make a plan for the passage south to Las Palmas.
Cheers from Mia and the FALKEN crew
mia@59-north.com
View more passage logs
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.