4°55.5' N 027°00.2' W
October 8, 2025 | 18:20 UTC | 4°55.5' N 027°00.2' W
First week offshore! Wow, first week offshore! Let's take this from the start. We departed from Salvador, after a great skipper meeting, during the afternoon in beautiful and great conditions. Nice wind and some waves (according to Tim, not more than a 1m…). After a fantastic pasta carbonara made by David, we started the night shift. Around 10 pm I started to feel a bit sick even though I had taken the medication. I knew that could be an issue but was not sure. Tried to contribute but could never go below deck, and I just realized that it has always been my wonderful mother being downstairs when we were out sailing during my youth.
Unfortunately, we were three people out of four in “Team A” that felt seasickness. However, everything's just fine when you work together, especially when you have Vilgot on your team! A big thank you to Vilgot and everyone else that worked so hard for us underneath the deck! You literally saved us! A person once told me about seasickness: “First it feels like you are going to die, then you want to die, and then suddenly it's gone.” After 20 hours it was gone and life onboard started!
Life on a sailing boat is about trust and taking care of each other. On this boat, we all have the same goal: to come safely to Gran Canaria and at the same time sail fast forward in an enjoyable way. It is therefore amazing to be on the water around the clock with people you have never met before, building up this happy ship with positive momentum and a high level of knowledge. Imagine doing yoga on the aft deck or sailing downwind in perfect conditions of sun, temperature, and wind, listening to your daughter's offline playlist on Spotify. That’s our amazing reality—every day! A fantastic constellation of people.
From a sailing perspective, this first week has been great. I was prepared for 20 days of upwind, but after two days we eased our sails and bared away. A great feeling to work with this mature lady, Adrianne, and see how much she loves the wind of 20 knots. We have had an average speed around 9 knots, which is quite good for a boat with a weight of 35,000 kg! Today we hoisted the gennaker—a 230 square meter sail—and she is moving forward as on rails. Happy ship!
I am also impressed with Eric and Tim, our skipper and first mate. Eric has fantastic knowledge of weather (taking us safely across the Atlantic) but also his modern leadership of communication, engagement, and involvement. Tim is the reason why I selected this trip, and I am certain that everyone who has been sailing with him knows what I mean. If you haven’t—you should, because he is just fantastic!
A huge thank you to everyone on the ship contributing and making this trip as good as it really is! Last but not least… the feeling of being disconnected. This is the first time I sit in front of a computer (been tricky before…). It is so good to be only “here” without disturbing electronic notices—something I will bring back home. Now I need to continue to do what I do every day: sail, eat, and sleep….
To my family back home—LYA ❤️♥️💜
Jim | ADRIENNE II Skipper
crew@59-north.com
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A last hurrah
Under the dome of stars in a moon-less sky, each of us during our time at the helm used the most rudimentary celestial navigation, keeping a star or two lined up with the mast as a helper to following the heading range. It was a whole crew event to set the spinnaker, reef the mainsail and practice the heave-to in case of man overboard. Alex stressed that the key to success in all of these crucial activities is preparation. It was hugely satisfying to accomplish these tasks through teamwork. We share a constant good hearted back and forth full of stories, one-liners and comebacks that also means constant laughter.
One little bird!
Falken has almost rounded the Channel Islands and is cruising along splendidly about 100 miles offshore. Though several models predicted some slightly fresher winds today, we were met with a consistent 18-20 kts of pure bliss. It seems that from the moment we left the dock in San Francisco, there has been much laughter and conversation amongst everyone. The plan is to gybe in a few hours and begin our approach to Ensenada. As much as I do appreciate the jokes and intellectual musings, I equally appreciate the natural, silent moments we share at night, all of us on watch gazing up above to the shooting stars, constellations, and planets putting on their quiet show.
Birds and glows
The sun brought new wind and we were soon putting up the Yankee (jib) and turning off the motor. During the evening tradition of sharing “glums and glows” that follows the crew dinner, our Mate Ryan proclaimed it a “champagne sailing” kind of day. As Alex noted this evening, life goes by so fast that one of the very best things about his line of work is enjoying the passage of time in the slow lane of an ocean passage. But by tomorrow, the green blobs in the weather sailing app indicate we’re going to pick up some significant northwesterly winds and we’ll take them ever further south to the Channel Islands latitude. We’re all super excited for the knots to climb and to see Falken really run.