January 27, 2025, 02:45 UTC | The Skipper
Eleven days have passed since the crew boarded NORDIC FALKEN in Las Palmas, and we’ve covered 1,778 nautical miles together under the leadership of our fearless skipper, Emily Caruso. The word “skipper” can evoke various thoughts and expectations from people who have different levels of sailing experience, particularly offshore sailing experience. Some people who have experience solely with day charters may consider a skipper’s responsibilities to be limited to showing up on time, getting off the dock, setting the sails, anchoring, playing the music, and getting the party crew back safely at the end of the day. The crew on FALKEN has witnessed how Emily’s responsibilities go way deeper and wider. She has done an amazing job managing all aspects of our transatlantic adventure to ensure our safety and positive experience.
Emily has been reassuring to everyone with her style of communication, counseling, mitigation, coaching, instruction, navigation planning, weather forecasting, training, and safety protocols. But being the leader of eleven people on board a 65’ sailboat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean means she also has to leave the cockpit and navigation station and make sure the rest of the ship is tidy and working efficiently. She has been particularly focused on several routine mechanical items that have come up on the trip (as they always do on boats), ensuring the heads have been kept tidy, stepping in as a Michelin chef delivering warmed meals at 6:00 pm on the dot every night (a highlight for many of us), and generally keeping us entertained with fantastic stories from her sailing adventures.
If you are family or friends checking the blog to see how your loved ones are doing on this adventure, just be assured that they are in great hands with Emily and everyone is feeling safe, secure, and appreciative of this fantastic opportunity!
Kevin Bresser, Austin TX
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.