TRACKER MAP WILL BE UPDATED FEB. 15, 2025
February 14, 2025
Antigua Yacht Club Marina | Pre-departure blog
The docks are filled with giants, and we are just passing through. In the beautiful marina of Antigua Yacht Club, you can find some of the biggest super-yachts you have seen. When walking along the dock looking left to right, you are surrounded by huge, shiny hulls all around you. But when you get a bit further out on the dock, the wall is interrupted, and if your eyes are staring up at the top decks of the super yachts, you might miss us. FALKEN is now located between two giants, and today we are planning to pass through to leave the harbor and head out to a mooring buoy for some man-overboard (MOB) training and a mellow evening and night to prepare for our passage the day after.
However, this plan got a bit of a twist. As we were heading out to the newly placed mooring buoy shown by the marina owner, we encountered a boat on anchor too close to the place we were supposed to tie up to. After a couple of tries in the blowing and rainy squalls, we were directed to change our plans and head back to the dock of Antigua Yacht Club to tie ourselves up again. We are now placed on the outer end of the long marina.
In the ten days since we arrived in Antigua from Las Palmas, we have done a successful handover to Mary and Manot from Emily & Mia. We’ve prepared the boat for the upcoming passage, done some maintenance work, and a bit of provisioning. The crew arrived to the boat yesterday, and after an introduction to the boat and our safety culture, FALKEN is now a home for the eleven people and ready for departure.
The conditions look promising for the passage. It seems now we will have a fast and fun downwind sail from Antigua to Colombia with wind strengths around 20 to 25 knots in the first couple of days, so HOLD FAST!
- The Apprentice, Vilgot
59ºNorthApprentice
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People Get Ready!
The last three days have been an intense (and intensely hot) period of discovery, practice, and planning. Because Adrienne II is not a 59N boat, there's been some extra setup and coordination needed including rigging all the sails that were out for repairs before we arrived. Its been a blast working alongside the 59N team getting to help them work things out on a less familiar boat in real time. Tomorrow morning we'll run through our Person Over Board training as the final pre-departure task, cast off and head out. Can't know all that it will be, but its going to be a great adventure out in the vast world with some pretty fantastic people.
Among the Channel Islands
In the wind shadow of SoCal we had a restful night with calm conditions ghosting through smooth seas. We’re getting ourselves in position for spicy weather tonight once we round Cape Conception, the seas build and the breeze freshens. It will be an upwind sail into an acceleration zone along a formable coast with few bailout points, Morro Bay being one. The crew is really gelling with lots of smiles and laughter on deck. Monterey is in our sights!
Day Two Delights
The seas were completely glassy with a gentle swell as we approached San Clemente Island, the southernmost of the Channel Islands. Everyone jumped in and marvelled at the lovely temperature and crystal clear, indigo-colored water. Before long the wind started to pick up, and we happily unfurled the jib and were sailing again. The afternoon has been gorgeous, cruising along at 5-6 kts, close hauled on a port tack in a gentle breeze, Catalina Island in the distance on our starboard side, and everyone is happy.