January 28, 2025 | 20:43 UTC | Sleep-Eat-Sail-REPEAT
Hello from the mid-Atlantic! Day 12 at sea, 2150 nm sailed, about 860 nm to go.
Sleep-Eat-Sail-REPEAT. It has been over a week since we have seen another boat. It is truly amazing to be on this small sailing vessel, surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean. Meanwhile, our entire life is happening on board FALKEN. The 11 of us have our daily routines that revolve around the watch system. We all take turns at the helm, we sleep, we eat, we clean, we learn, we support each other—all under the expert and caring supervision of our Skipper Emily and First Mate Mia.
The days and nights blend together into one continuous watch schedule. In this intense and close environment, you get to know your crewmates very well—like summer camp on steroids. We are people from different countries and experiences, connected by our love of sailing and adventure. Deep friendships are formed by this shared unique opportunity to sail across the Atlantic Ocean.
As the saying goes, do something every day that scares you. Try to imagine: 2 am, pitch black, sustained winds at 25 knots, gusts approaching 40 knots, ocean swell at 3m—there you are at the helm, hand steering this 65’ sailboat safely towards Antigua. White-knuckled, you wonder, what am I doing here? After your watch, you crash into your bunk with a great sense of accomplishment. Each time at the helm, feeling more confident.
As we are in the final stretch of our passage, there is a lot of chat about cocktails, beer, wine, and FOOD! Mia has done a superb job with provisions and meal planning, but of course the fresh provisions are now gone. What I wouldn’t do for a crunchy and juicy apple right now.
I am truly grateful to have this opportunity and thank you to my family and friends for their support. It has been a once in a lifetime experience. Thank you to 59 North for their professionalism and for creating this exceptional opportunity.
Thanks to all friends and family for the comments on the blog! We read them daily at dinner and it gives us encouragement to push through the final miles. We miss you all. We will all have lots of stories and photos to share when we get home—so many, so brace yourselves! :)
Jillian
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
crew@59-north.com
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A last hurrah
Under the dome of stars in a moon-less sky, each of us during our time at the helm used the most rudimentary celestial navigation, keeping a star or two lined up with the mast as a helper to following the heading range. It was a whole crew event to set the spinnaker, reef the mainsail and practice the heave-to in case of man overboard. Alex stressed that the key to success in all of these crucial activities is preparation. It was hugely satisfying to accomplish these tasks through teamwork. We share a constant good hearted back and forth full of stories, one-liners and comebacks that also means constant laughter.
One little bird!
Falken has almost rounded the Channel Islands and is cruising along splendidly about 100 miles offshore. Though several models predicted some slightly fresher winds today, we were met with a consistent 18-20 kts of pure bliss. It seems that from the moment we left the dock in San Francisco, there has been much laughter and conversation amongst everyone. The plan is to gybe in a few hours and begin our approach to Ensenada. As much as I do appreciate the jokes and intellectual musings, I equally appreciate the natural, silent moments we share at night, all of us on watch gazing up above to the shooting stars, constellations, and planets putting on their quiet show.
Birds and glows
The sun brought new wind and we were soon putting up the Yankee (jib) and turning off the motor. During the evening tradition of sharing “glums and glows” that follows the crew dinner, our Mate Ryan proclaimed it a “champagne sailing” kind of day. As Alex noted this evening, life goes by so fast that one of the very best things about his line of work is enjoying the passage of time in the slow lane of an ocean passage. But by tomorrow, the green blobs in the weather sailing app indicate we’re going to pick up some significant northwesterly winds and we’ll take them ever further south to the Channel Islands latitude. We’re all super excited for the knots to climb and to see Falken really run.