#2. las palmas to antigua| scott’s lifelong dream

January 26, 2025, 20:46 UTC | 18:46 Ship’s Time | 20º 29.8’ N / 040º 23.40.9’ W | Scott’s Lifelong Dream

By early Sunday morning, we have the 3rd reef in the main with the wind off our starboard quarter. After 2 days of of a heavier weather helm, the crew is presented with a perfectly balanced sail plan. The winds are still 25-38 knots,  but we are back to finger tip control on the wheel. Watch B heads off to bed at 0200 and Watch A has the task of rigging the spinnaker pole through the night to allow us to sail wing on wing.  This gives us the ability to sail another 20 degrees down wind - giving us a course to steer directly towards Antigua.

As the sun rises in the East, the clouds are pushed away and we are presented with a beautiful sunny day.  The winds abate and are now 20-25 knots.  The temperatures are becoming warmer as each nautical mile slips beneath our keel.

I felt today was a reset for the FALKEN crew. We all commented how tired we were yesterday. Adrenaline from helming was keeping us awake and as the pressure came off we all went to our births tired but content knowing that the boat would gently rock us off to sleep.

As I sit on deck writing today’s blog, the yankee is poled out and FALKEN is a freight train running down the track pointed directly towards Antigua. What else is going on? Sarah is stretching and doing her yoga on the cockpit floor, Brendan is reading about sail trim in the yacht masters book, Derek is on the helm and I am enjoying and appreciating our time at sea.  Our crew mates, our blissfully sleeping on their 6 hours off to the gentle rocking of the boat.

I also feel that all of us have settled into life at sea. All outside influences have long been forgotten as we focus on standing  watch, drinking tea, hydrating, eating when you can and sleeping at every opportunity.

This has been a life long dream to sail an ocean. I can’t imagine any better way of fulfilling such a dream as signing onto FALKEN as a working crew member. The boat is safe, fully prepared, rigged, equipped for whatever Mother Nature can throw at us. With Emily and Mia in charge and all of us as willing crew, it is a marvelous experience that I will forever treasure. The only thing that would make it better would be sharing it directly with my family. However, in this regard, we have found the balance of coastal cruising on our own boat in the Pacific North West with me (Dad) getting his ocean miles through 59 North.

Will leave the blog here with a  big thank you for all the family and friends sending us their best wishes. As information, we read the comments at meal time in the cockpit with all crew. 

Scott
Calgary, Alberta, Canada (now 1765 nm offshore - mid Atlantic)