Wind or no wind?
50º 08’18 N, 127º 41’379 W
Friday, August 8, 2025, 22:00 Local time | 50º 08’18 N, 127º 41’379 W
When we slipped lines from Prince Rupert two days ago, the wind forecast was not very promising. But looking at the bigger picture, it was clear that we would sail through the border of two bigger weather systems, as well as all the thermal winds that might or might not turn up, depending on cloud cover, etc. So all in all, not looking too promising, but also pretty predictably unpredictable. And as things go, we just ended up sailing for a good portion of it. Beautiful upwind sailing in nice and easy winds up to 20 kts. Perfect to enjoy FALKEN's small tacking angles.
Sailing did end up great, but who am I kidding, sailing only was the cherry on top of an otherwise amazing day. After a few sightings of whales the past few days, we passed by a pod of orcas today, shortly before seeing a beautiful and impressively large sunfish. The wildlife has been stunning to say the least. So it only seemed normal to have otters swim around the anchored boat in the evening, while munching on their food.
Difficult to make this day any better it seems. But better it got indeed. My personal highlight: as we anchored in this wild little bay, we drove the dinghy over to the beach and followed a grown-over trail through the wildest rainforest I had ever seen. After walking for a bit over 30 minutes, we arrived on the other side—a beach of white sand so large it would have been an adventure in itself to walk the full length of it. It took us less than a minute to make up our minds and go for a swim in the fresh Pacific Ocean water. Truly a dream of a day.
- Manot | FALKEN Mate
ManotBerger
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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.