Reflecting on the wows
48 52.046N / 125 21.210W
48 52.046N / 125 21.210W | 20:36 Local time
I’m writing from WOW island (ok, I renamed it slightly—Wouwer Island officially). But it does feel wow! Wow; so beautiful. Wow; so quiet. Wow; we are alone in paradise. I cannot believe somewhere so close to Seattle and Vancouver can be so peaceful, so empty. It’s just us and the bald eagle flying around.
Many of the crew (myself included) had been dreaming of anchoring in the Broken Group for years. So, with southerlies all morning and a residue swell, the choice was an easy one to delay departure south for another 24 hours. We are set to leave tomorrow morning at first light for San Francisco.
Sailing—like any rich experience—is all about the peaks and the troughs. Today we picked up anchor in grey drizzle and got rained on for four hours. Then we rescued Bob (the MOB dummy and only guy on the boat) and it proved—yes, we did learn a ton about winches, halyards, communication, and safety on day one. Then, the rain stopped and we entered the Pacific. Amazing! Many first timers here. And then the ocean swell began… and puking proceeded. As if the weather was respecting the seasick crew members’ privacy, the fog rolled in thick. So dense was the whiteness, there were moments when it was hard to see the helm from the companionway. And then, at 5pm, islands started to appear in the distance, the sun shone through the thick band of pea soup, the sea flattened, and 100 islands of joy appeared. This place is magical. And the drizzle of the day only added extra sparkle when we found it. Peaks and troughs? We are happy to choose the swells over a flat, easy life.
I’ll finish up by letting you into the moment onboard… a few crew are washing up after risotto. Some others are sitting around the table eating chocolate and chatting about books they are reading. Hannah generously gifted us all earrings she’d handmade from stones she’d picked up on various islands in the San Juan Islands—so people are looking at those and chatting about when she found them. A couple crew are on deck watching the last light of the day dim from gold to dark blue. And I think one or two are getting themselves ready for bed. I love these moments. They are less photographed, less shiny—but so much more alive, familiar, and true. Special enough that no one needs to get out a camera. They are just totally, entirely present.
Before we slipped lines, I was chatting to Andy Schell about how much we enjoy writing. I so look forward to sitting down and getting stuck into a blog. But the truth is—it’s not so much the writing, but the reflecting, the thinking, the questioning that’s the best part of writing. Taking the time to slow down and sit down and look back quietly on the day is such a treat. It feels so indulgent. And yet, it requires nothing but time. Time, and discipline. Funny how it takes discipline to do something that feels good. Yet, we have no trouble at all scrolling our minds numb… The parallels between writing and sailing are hard to ignore as I meander through my thoughts here.
Anyway, thank you for reading—it’s that extra push that encourages me to sit down and do it.
- Nikki
NikkiHenderson
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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.