start -4 hrs
19 February 2024
It’s the morning of the RORC Caribbean 600 Race here! All quiet on the docks, except for the divers polishing our hull. It’s going to be a slower race, with the wind forecasted to drop off by Wednesday morning as it gets sucked into a low developing up north. So we will be thankful for the clean bottom!
We started 59º North Offshore Racing as a branch out from 59º North’s flagship product of offshore passages—because we all felt it was a no-brainer to combine my (Nikki’s) experience and passion for racing with the 59º North family and brand, so we can share this amazing side of sailing. Offshore racing can—like sailing itself—be elitist. 59º North Offshore Racing is all about opening doors. We’re opening the racing door to the wider sailing community by offering a significant amount of training before the race in order to train the crew up so that they are safe and competent against the rest of the fleet, who are mostly fully pro teams.
I put amateur in inverted commas because that’s at the beginning! It’s amazing to see how this crew, and all the crews, will develop and learn and grow into a solid team. Cannot wait for the race. Please track us and send us messages. It really feels amazing to know we are not only bringing these nine crew along, but also all of you!
- Nikki
NikkiHenderson
View more passage logs
Ladies who reef
The trade winds have been kind, rolling the boat toward Hawaii in a steady, hypnotic rhythm—until last night, when a squall hit without warning and the wind jumped to 28 knots, slamming everything sideways. With rain driving down and the boat lurching underfoot, the crew had minutes to wrestle two reefs into the mainsail and get things back under control. What followed was a masterclass in wet, unglamorous, deeply satisfying teamwork—with less than 250 miles left to go.
Yankee Doodle Died at Sea, Riding on a FALKEN
A thin, foot-long tear in the yankee sail—50,000 miles of ocean behind it—and suddenly the final stretch to Hawaii just got a lot more interesting. The crew of FALKEN had been running a tight ship through the trades, reefing in squalls like clockwork, when the last dance finally caught up with them. How a skipper handles the moment everything goes sideways says everything about the voyage itself.
A Gen Z Perspective
At 31, the crew thought they were reasonably fluent in the English language—then they met Kip. Today, the crew's self-appointed Gen Z correspondent takes over the log from somewhere in the middle of the Pacific, delivering dispatches on Milky Way night sails, focaccia-induced visions, and the singular mission of getting eleven people's "badonkadonks" to Hawaii. Consider this your glossary.