The basics
16:00 UTC | 33°42.0N 158°37.4W
Sailing
Nordic Falken and her crew have been in a steady course of NNW since the departure of Hawaii. A course that has seen us mainly close reaching with the occasional close hauled. For those who don’t understand what sailing to this angles with the wind we’ve had means it’s basically a constant battle of the basics. Brushing your teeth, putting your shoes on, changing clothes or even just eating become extremely complicated, you forget the basics you learned when you were a toddler and find yourself questioning your existence for most of your watch.
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. The waves have died off over-night and we’ve had the first bit of dry deck since we departed, a pleasure to our butts which have been sitting on the damp since then!
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. I keep pushing for bare-feet to make me feel like I’m still in Hawaii but the sleeping bag and greyness keeps reminding me that perhaps it is time to realize that the tropics indeed, are long gone.
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.
Mahalo
Alex
Alex
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Day Four: The boat has figured us out
By day 4, things start to get into a rhythm that starts to look like a small community onboard. It’s when personalities start to flourish, when people start losing themselves and start to realize that they don’t really care about a lot of things! I’m pretty sure the disconnection from the internet starts aligning our inner selves. Clearly everyone has gotten their sea legs by now, and even the boat seems to have understood the type of crew she has now. I love to see how people start fitting into different roles with their peers and the boat itself.
Kärt barn har många namn
A dear child goes by many a name, or as we say in Swedish "kärt barn har många namn". This is the case for many a person, but also some species, not least the Mahi mahi, which also goes by dolphin fish, golden mackerel, and dorado, among others. Soon, we could see the fish jump, a hundred feet or so behind the boat, and as I kept reeling, a beautiful Mahi appeared under the surface. Manot showed us how to clean and fillet it, and after a complete team effort two large fillets are now in the freezer of Adrienne II.
Cast off the lines
When we awoke it was overcast but the Brazilian sun quickly burned the clouds away and we were left with blue skies. We reviewed some safety procedures, cleaned the boat and had an exciting Person Overboard (POB) recovery. Once we were underway spirits soared as we pointed the bow toward the Canary Islands. As I write this we are heading upwind and dealing with all that involves, and working into our first watches. It is hot, a bit bumpy but we are sailing!!