Latitude: 07°47.32S
Longitude: 153°31.27W
Sunday, June 11, 2025 | 15:00 Boat time | 01:00 UTC | 07°47.32S 153°31.27W
The Pacific is, it turns out, rather large. Mind-bogglingly so. Current estimates suggest it’s 79,108 miles across. North to south, about 530,012 miles, which, in a curious turn of coincidence, is the same temperature in the forepeak cabin this morning. Just our little jaunt from Tahiti to Hawaii is the driving distance going from Bangor, Maine to Clearwater, Florida by way of Boise, Idaho. Now, some of you may question these estimates, which is fair, but in our defense, Falken has come down with a case of the 1990s and we can’t Google stuff. Alex has embraced this with enthusiasm and taken to spontaneously emerging from the aft hatch shirtless, with his Andalusian locks billowing in the wind, to make unverifiable proclamations about the spiritual practices of yellow-footed boobies.
So, the Pacific is pretty big, thus you can’t blame her for occasionally misplacing the wind. After dodging squalls yesterday and celebrating Mary’s birthday with cake (thanks, Adam), watching her reel in a tuna, and (also thanks, Adam) getting it filleted and into the freezer, today has been windless and hot. We’ve motored north along course, still in the little latitudes of the south, aching for any breeze to justify shutting down the motor. But, absent the breeze, we did the only sensible thing a bunch of sweaty, unwashed people can do in the middle of a very large body of water: we jumped off the boat.
Istvan and Tara were hanging from the stern line, Stacy was languidly treading water, and Orie was enthusiastically lathering himself while Jim did cannonballs into the ocean. Alex aggressively defended his exceptionally expensive conditioner from the rest of the crew. Amidst this joy was a moment of gratitude; we didn’t get to sail today, but nothing can replace the immense smallness of floating, untethered, in the blue vastness of the Pacific, rising and falling with the swell and watching beams of sunlight venture into the depths of the thousands of feet of water beneath us. Such smallness that makes every other thought still until the only thing your mind can hold is the notion: "I Am Here."
P.S. For those desperate for an update, the heat rash is almost gone thanks to Dr. Bronner’s and his magical miracle soap.
- Jacob Davis | FALKEN Crew
Write your comments below and I’ll forward them to the boat with the daily update :) - Mia (shore support)
FALKENCrew
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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.