thanks mother nature
47 06.2N 125 26.9W
47 06.2N 125 26.9W | 22:45 Local time
OMG! The stars! That’s all… OK, not really—but honestly, it’s magical out here tonight. The girls are steering in 15 knots of wind with full sails on a broad reach underneath a glittering cloak of sparkles, and we all feel the fairy dust effect. It’s dark, but I’m convinced everyone is smiling, pondering, marveling at how extraordinary our universe is. The Milky Way is so defined and hanging so low, the helms are using the edge of it as something to steer towards to stay on course.
As we reflected over Mia’s coconut and ginger curry for dinner, it’s been a dream-field day since the moment we woke up at 6am to lift the hook. The sky was just brightening and we hoisted the main in the lee of the Broken Group, and rose just as we passed the last cluster of rocks. Ahead was thick, thick fog and honestly, if we didn’t have the modern wonders of satellites and space rockets, we might have wondered if we were sailing towards the edge of the world, about to fall off a waterfall.
Around mid-morning, the fog cleared and the North Westerlies gently started to fill in, and by dinner time we turned off the engine and started to sail. It was a wonderful, peaceful, gentle day. Thanks, Mother Nature. You are warming us ladies in softly.
Also, happy birthday to Catherine’s husband! She’s looking up at the glorious night sky, 50 nautical miles from shore, and is thinking about you. She told me you’d enjoy a message from us. If we had a bottle, we’d write it in there and throw it overboard. But hopefully this feels just as magical! Happy, happy birthday.
Enjoy your warm cozy beds, everyone. And we will enjoy our less cozy, less warm, but absolutely breathtakingly beautiful outside world.
- 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.