20°04.9' N 024°43.7' W
October 14, 2025 | 17:20 UTC | 20°04.9' N 024°43.7' W
The Life Onboard as an Apprentice
One year ago, I met Andy and Mia at a boat show in Ellös, Sweden—a first encounter with NORDIC FALKEN and 59° North. After a long and interesting conversation for both parties, I applied to the apprentice program that 59° North started a few years prior. Half a year later, I took a flight down to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, and my first apprentice passage started. This was half a year ago, and today I am doing my second apprentice passage with 59 North.
As a 19-year-old guy dreaming of one day working with ocean sailing, the life on both FALEKN and now ADRIENNE II is so much more than having the constant view of an endless horizon, magical sunrises and sunsets, good sailing, and meeting amazing people that you grow so close to during the passage. The skilled skippers and mates bring you excitement and knowledge about the world I am dreaming of working in. To learn about the weather from Erik, and Tim's knowledge about ADRIENNE II and different sailing stories, is amazing to listen to. As well as new experiences from the crew, such as Nicole's yoga and spirituality, Jim's experience in competition and the constant look for more speed when sailing, and listening to everyone's life stories!
Today is the 14th of October and the 14th day at sea. The sky is starting to turn blue and small cloud banks cover small parts of the blue ocean above us. The ocean beneath us has calmed down the last couple of days, and the comforting waves rock the boat while we make our way upwind towards our destination. With us now being in the last third of the passage, it is still important to take your reflections of life outside this 70ft boat and still take in the surroundings and enjoy every minute of what the ocean has to offer!
Dinner time is soon here for us, so I better get back to the galley to finish the Chili Con Carne that I am cooking!
Fair winds,
Apprentice/Chef Vilgot
Love to Mom and Dad!
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.