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
Seasickness
But maybe, I thought, with some drugs I could stay ahead of it. The first 48 hours I felt horrible. But luckily with 3 health care professionals on board and in a very encouraging environment, my body found its way. Anyway, someone offered me a patch (unavailable in Canada) and someone else gave me some pills for nausea and now I feel much, much better.
Dolphins and Bioluminescence
We had a good run with the sails but weather has changed and we are once again chasing the wind. Everyone is getting a chance to practice helming in big swell; starting to get a feel of the wind and water and how it pushes and pulls the hull. A pod of dolphins came to visit at night, splashing in the bioluminescent water, and again in the day, dancing in the bow wake. For now enjoying the calmer sea state and falling asleep to the rumble of the engine and the gentle whooshing of the water on the hull.
Greetings from Lala Lemonshark
The brave crew is toughing it out and staying cheerful despite being tossed around. The engine is off and we are true sailing-main and jib. In the first 12 hours we saw two pods of Orca and four humpback whales, two of which were 20 yards off the starboard beam!