Sunday, June 22, 2025 | Upwind Battle
Splash BANG
Over the last several days, FALKEN has been beating upwind due north, steadily closing the distance between us and Hawaii. Everyone is delighted by the upwind sailing, both above and below deck. Alex is often heard remarking that it is his favorite point of sail. I assume it is because of the fun surprises he gets while the boat rides up and down the swells, smashing her bow into the waves. Like the time he was in the head during a moment of relative calm, then suddenly sideways and frantically pumping to escape disaster. Or the time he was cozied in his bed, enjoying a fresh breeze from his open hatch, when Istvan drove the boat directly into a crashing wave for the sheer glee of it. A deluge of water rained down on Alex, causing him to laugh and bounce with delight.
The best of the surprises happened just last night. Around 9:30 pm, everyone on the boat heard a BANG loud enough to penetrate through industrial strength earplugs and the noise-canceling technology of Apple AirPods Max. As the boat was bounding along, the pin holding the refrigerator closed had been strained to the point of collapse. Jake dealt the final blow. He claims he delicately touched it and suddenly the fridge came flying out of the wall and across the room. Only Mary was there to witness, however. The two of them muddled through a cascade of cucumbers and attempted to restore the fridge to its rightful place. Their efforts, however, were futile. It now lives under the galley table.
So we endure the endless delight of upwind sailing. Onward to Hawaii!
Tara
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.