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
View more passage logs
Quadruple digits!
We are still headed north away from Hawaii, though today we have started to veer ever so slightly east. Speaking of miles, we hit quadruple digits today and are currently 1051 nms into our journey to Alaska. The sea state continues to calm down, and the famous North Pacific high is just out of our reach. The next few days will be a delicate dance of riding the outskirts of the high while avoiding the pesky low pressure systems that are dancing nearby. In his very wise words, we need to get north but not too far north, stay south but not too far south, continue heading east but not too far east, and avoid going west but also stay west.
The basics
Nordic Falken and her crew have been in a steady course of NNW since the departure of Hawaii. But! The good thing of all of this is that the promised land on which the high pressure lies has been getting closer and closer, meaning in a couple of days we're gonna see the wind slowly veer all the way to the South, which finally should see us easing the sails and remembering the basics of human nature all over again. The crew have been amazing and we've had everyone come around to push through fatigue, seasickness and soaking wet clothes. On another note we left the tropics a while ago and we can really feel the shift of temperature, long gone are the shorts and foulies have been the norm. Not much more apart from this, my intolerance to upwind sailing still pretty much alive but doing it with a bunch of such amazing human beings makes it worth it worthwhile.
Pacific pace
After some initial adversity, we untied our lines and left the beautiful island of O'ahu behind as we set sail north on an adventure of a lifetime. And that is exactly what we are - a family of strangers brought together by a passion for sailing and a love for the sea. The passage, while at its infancy, has delivered. The wind and seas, stars and sails all set the stage for a fantastic journey. We will see you on the other side with many stories to tell.