Happy Birthday Mary!
Sunday, June 9, 2025 | 09:45 Local Time
Good morning from the middle of the South Pacific! FALKEN has been ticking miles off nicely and the crew are all well into the watch system. Today we woke up to a much more squally day, with lightning and thunderstorms around us indicating our proximity to the ITCZ. The forecast is promising, and with a light day ahead expected tomorrow, everything seems to be as straightforward as sailing goes.
The dilemma is which island do we aim for: Palmyra Atoll or Christmas Island? I know, right? What a terrible decision to make! Both of them have their pros and cons, but looking at the weather ahead, we are currently heading towards Christmas Island, which is currently lying 970nm NW of our position.
Today is a special day for our First Mate Mary, who is turning 30! She doesn’t know it yet, but we have a little present for her and Adam is baking a birthday cake from scratch.
Lots of love,
- Alex
Send your birthday message to Mary in the comments and I’ll forward it to the boat with the daily update.
- Mia (shore support)
laline96@gmail.com
View more passage logs
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.