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
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.