January 23, 2025, 18:35 UTC | 18º 35.1’ N / 029º 35.6’ W | Shift 33 | Log 21
The Team
It’s the seventh day since we embarked on our voyage, with the simple stabilities and securities of land a distant memory. The sea is now our master, and the wind our courier. We battle to stand, concede to fall, and settle for the rhythmic rocking and rolling motion as Nordic FALKEN traverses the unending, undulating Atlantic Sea, carrying us towards land, liquor, and loved ones.
Yet, we no longer stand on shaky legs or see through weary eyes. We walk in strides, with the creases of smiles littering our eyes. Supporting each other, fighting for the whole, being a team, working our way home.
This casts me away into this log, setting my course not for the thoughts of home, but for the ones that sail with me today. For the ones I work with, sweat with, and fear with. The ones I’ll remember when I share our story of cunning, bravery, and a splattering of jovial humor.
Our skipper is Emily, a brave sailor with knowledge to rival the eldest of veterans. Yet, she isn’t doom and gloom, her way or the highway, but has enough charisma to make even Davy Jones chuckle with glee. Her first mate, Mia, continues this trend, bringing smiles aplenty, mirth of the merry, and stories—stories of heroism, endurance, and humor—passing the time as we dawdle away in mother nature.
This leads me to the youngest of the group, the apprentice, Vilgot, who shouldn’t be considered any less wise because of his age. For he too brings experience in bundles, stories in droves, and enthusiasm in spades.
Next on our list is us, the crew, divided into two teams: Team A and Team B. Team A holds Jillian the bold, who’s letting her dreams come true; Paolo the speedy, flying to master every task; Janette the brave, turning her fears into memories; and Kevin the conundrum, the American who can dream of more than a large house with a big garage.
The better team, my team, Team B, has Derick the jovial, a lawyer that can laugh the real laugh; Scott the cheerful, always smiling, no matter the challenge; Sarah the unexpected, a gentle voice with a history of mischief; and then there is me—the least experienced of the lot, but perhaps the one with the most ambition.
And that is us: the crew, the team, the family aboard NORDIC FALKEN, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in 2025. Sharing stories, laughter, knowledge, and just having a cracker of a time.
B.P. Ryan
crew@59-north.com
View more passage logs
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.