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
View more passage logs
”For some things, we will never be ready.” - Moana 2
After 852 miles of open ocean sailing, the crew of Falken dropped anchor in Moorea's Cook's Bay—not with a quiet glide in, but surfing down waves in a squall, breaking speed records and cheering each other on through the rain. What started as a plan to "just dip a toe" into offshore sailing turned into something harder to explain: the worse the conditions got, the more alive everyone felt. Turns out the question was never whether the crew was ready—it was whether they even needed to be.
Kauehi conundrum
Kauehi atoll was always on the itinerary—until the forecast made it a gamble not worth taking. Squalls, bommies, a tidal pass, and no clean escape route: sometimes the hardest call in sailing is the one that keeps you out of a place, not in it. The Tuamotus will have to wait.
Hove-to!
Falken is too fast—a problem most sailors would kill for, yet here we are, tacking back and forth across the Pacific just to kill time. A rogue low pressure system south of Tahiti has stolen the trades and scrambled our timing for the tidal window into Kauehi's pass, leaving us hove-to 45 miles short of our target in the Tuamotus. Salt licorice, dream sandwich debates, and a philosophical question about mermaid reproduction are helping pass the night.