February 9, 2025 | St. Martin Departure, Cutting the Lines
Today, we cut the lines—time to shove off. In only a day and a half since meeting each other, we have developed as a strong crew. In that time, already, we’ve grown to share humor, trust, and confidence. For some of us, this is the biggest undertaking of our lives, by far. For others, this is another treasured lap across the pond. We come from opposite sides of this great ocean we are about to cross, and we will work together to do so successfully and safely.
This morning, as I walked on shore to greet the rising sun, I said out loud to myself, “You’re crossing the Atlantic Ocean today, Dude,” and I cried for several minutes. We know not what we will find out beyond the islands that surround us. We have a confident and empowering Captain Erik, who gave his crew a thorough safety and weather briefing all day yesterday, and his First Mate, Tim, has made us feel confident in his knowledge of this beautiful vessel and its systems, with his humble and kind demeanor.
Lee cloths and lee boards are installed for the first few days, at least, as we beat “uphill” for a few days to the northeast. We’ve got our watch teams established, and our nicknames are already developing (we actually already have two “MacGyvers” on board). A happy crew is a safe crew, and we are ready to cut the lines. All the ‘Aumakuas are out there, waiting for us to pass by—10 friendly humans on a beautiful and prepared vessel, the beautiful Swan that she is, Adrienne.
We are stoked. We are confident. We are safe. The wind is up, the sails are ready to be unfurled, and the anchor will take a siesta for 3–4 weeks. Mahalo, Adrienne, for carrying this strong crew across the great Atlantic Ocean!
/ Ryan Redmond, Adrienne Crew
crew@59-north.com
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Turning the corner
Yesterday found Falken on a Northward course, still heeled to port, climbing and falling over waves. Sunrise this morning found Falken in an entirely different condition, one familiar to her, but not yet to the current crew. And then a truly magic moment, a pod of dolphins at least fifty members strong came to dance on Falken’s bow wave. We are now joyfully headed northeast, on course toward our eventual destination of Prince Rupert. Falken has turned a corner.
Onwards and upwards
Today is set to be the calmest day of our trip so far, waves subdued, wind veering off more south-east, light clouds. What an exhilarating ride it has been, beating upwind non-stop directly north for 6 straight days! What ahead of us is a mostly downwind sail to Prince Rupert, but a very exciting one. This makes it an interesting few days going fast and closely watching the weather, and I’m very much looking forward to it. The crew is happy, everyone seems to be getting good rest, enjoying watches and time in between.
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.