22°04.9' N 023°41.6' W
October 15, 2025 | 10:20 UTC | 22°04.9' N 023°41.6' W | To Be A Sailor
To be a sunrise,
A golden hue that silently wakes the ocean blue.
To be the ocean
that awakens, outstretching
its glassy sheaths of morning dew.
To be the morning hour,
a delicate space of time
where the seas sip their first breath,
signaling the birth of a new day.
To be the clouds—
clouds stained in gentle rouge,
kissed by the lips of Neptune’s Sea-Garden Muse.
Liminality:
A place of in-between
where stillness echoes
a sailor’s heart's soul melody.
We became the witness,
the eyes and ears
of the Atlantic East.
And this time,
our morning crew knew
life would never be the same.
For there were no words to exchange;
instead, our hearts found
a seat on Adrienne’s wooden beams.
Together,
we held invisible hands,
greeted by life’s miraculous mysteries.
To be a Sailor...
Mahalo to Captain Erik and First Mate Tim,
who just know... from the deepest layers of their heart and skin.
Nicole | Adrienne II Crew
crew@59-north.com
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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.
Golden Day
The Pacific is giving us “the shimmer” - with a still flat sea seven hours out of San Francisco Bay, we’re motoring south along the shipping channel, with an hour to go to what teases now as a stunning sunset against wispy clouds. Throughout this first day of Falken 11 the sails have unfurled and been furled again as skipper Alex tries to fill them a meager breeze indeed. We’ve seen a few whales traveling along the route, and an otter that was sadly just a buoy. It’s the first open ocean sail for many of us and it’s a thrill to anticipate all the new experiences we’ll have.
Seasickness
But maybe, I thought, with some drugs I could stay ahead of it. The first 48 hours I felt horrible. But luckily with 3 health care professionals on board and in a very encouraging environment, my body found its way. Anyway, someone offered me a patch (unavailable in Canada) and someone else gave me some pills for nausea and now I feel much, much better.