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
View more passage logs
Ladies who reef
The trade winds have been kind, rolling the boat toward Hawaii in a steady, hypnotic rhythm—until last night, when a squall hit without warning and the wind jumped to 28 knots, slamming everything sideways. With rain driving down and the boat lurching underfoot, the crew had minutes to wrestle two reefs into the mainsail and get things back under control. What followed was a masterclass in wet, unglamorous, deeply satisfying teamwork—with less than 250 miles left to go.
Yankee Doodle Died at Sea, Riding on a FALKEN
A thin, foot-long tear in the yankee sail—50,000 miles of ocean behind it—and suddenly the final stretch to Hawaii just got a lot more interesting. The crew of FALKEN had been running a tight ship through the trades, reefing in squalls like clockwork, when the last dance finally caught up with them. How a skipper handles the moment everything goes sideways says everything about the voyage itself.
A Gen Z Perspective
At 31, the crew thought they were reasonably fluent in the English language—then they met Kip. Today, the crew's self-appointed Gen Z correspondent takes over the log from somewhere in the middle of the Pacific, delivering dispatches on Milky Way night sails, focaccia-induced visions, and the singular mission of getting eleven people's "badonkadonks" to Hawaii. Consider this your glossary.