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
View more passage logs
Ketch us if you Kan
Falken is soon to carry on our preferred route of South, back to (hopefully) warmer climates. We’re all excited to set off and see more of this wild landscape as we head down to Victoria. A thermal trough over Vancouver combined with an offshore high pressure creating funneling NW’ly winds means it is due to be pretty fruity on the 9th. This passage is just under 600 miles, relatively short for Falken, but I’m sure we’ll be kept entertained with dramatic scenery, wildlife and weather!
Final Blog
Falken and her crew arrived safely into port last night around 8pm boat time, 10pm Prince Rupert time. Some spicy weather was anticipated, but luckily the 35kt gusts and 2.5 meter waves were no match for this expert crew. We had an exceptionally smooth docking, despite it being Alex's first time parking this year (!). We all agreed that this was a very special group of people—I for one am so impressed with how everyone stayed so positive, helpful, and appreciative of humor despite an arguably challenging passage. We'll all return home significantly saltier than we were when we left, a mark of a passage properly sailed.
Lessons and a Gift
The biggest lesson is the helm. The lesson here is that even if you don't think you can do it over and over again with no sleep, cold and damp, it has to be done and so it can be done. Flying fish are cool, dolphins are really really cool, but the coolest of them all are the whales. And most of all Alex: "Find your center Carla. Always know where your center is so you can come back to it". He means the helm but it applies to life as well.