Made it to Antigua!
17.0167° N, 61.7833° W
February 5, 2025 | Falmouth Harbor, Antigua
It is now Wednesday afternoon, February 5th. It feels like a long time ago that we made landfall in Antigua, when we spotted the glow on the horizon early in the morning and eventually saw the island of Antigua peak out of the water. The last bit of the journey was absolutely amazing—the wind picked up a bit and, with a reefed main and poled-out genoa, we sprinted towards our ‘finish line’ without much effort. By now, the crew were all comfortable on the helm and it was truly a magical last night under the stars.
Though many of us were excited about everything that landfall brings—a warm shower, burger and a drink, family waiting on the dock—the list can go on. But many of us were also aware that this adventure we have shared the last 2+ weeks was about to come to an end.
We made landfall early morning on the 2nd of February and pulled into Antigua Yacht Club. We had family waiting on the dock for some of the crew, and to our crew’s delight, a bag of ice with COLD beer in it (Thank you Adam!). We tied up to the dock and the first thing that needed to be done on arrival was to clear the crew into the country. Emily walked over to English Harbor to the customs office with all passports. In the meantime, we sprayed down the decks and scrubbed off the salt that had been accumulating throughout the journey. I must admit though that this boat was VERY clean on arrival—our daily clean down below and in the cockpit had paid off.
Once Emily came back, we all went ashore for some well-deserved showers and eventually dinner ashore! Crew have been enjoying the islands the last few days and some have had family fly out for an extended vacation, while others jumped on the plane to go home to their loved ones.
Thank you all for a great Trans-Atlantic. It has been fun to share our passage with so many people at home and all the comments have been read during dinner time (we get email daily from our shore support). If you have not yet made a comment and have been reading the blog, this is your chance :)
- Mia and the FALKEN crew
mia@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.