We Did It!
1900 | Pasito Blanco
In Port
We did it!! We have sailed across the North Atlantic and red pants can now legally be worn by the whole crew :)
18 days and 3,271 nautical miles ago, nine strangers met up in sunny Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten. After that many days and miles and all the unique offshore-experiences we now share, it feels like we have known each other for a lifetime. A huge thank you all for making this passage a memory for life. I’ve had a blast! A special thanks goes to our super-apprentice Anton, and super-mate Delaney for always being so professional, proactive and fun! I will forever remember our lovely little rendezvous in the bilges cleaning diesel filters and manually transferring fuel between tanks.
The weather gods have indeed challenged us during this transatlantic crossing. As expected this passage started out with a few days of upwind sailing, but we had more open wind angles within reach. We just had to continue a bit further north. The more favorable winds (as opposed to our dead upwind) did however all the time move away from us with about the same speed as Adrienne’s. We really never caught up with them, so upwind upwind upwind it has been all along. At first a bit frustrating but after a while you understand that weather gods too need to have a bit of fun. We were of course an easy prey; the only sailboat to be found out on this vast ocean stubbornly sailing from west to east this time of the year. And in case we would forget about all this beating upwind once ashore, the gods topped it all off with a nice Gale right on the final stretch towards the Canaries. 30 knots of wind, gusting 40. The crew has indeed been put to the test.
We are now securely moored alongside here in Pasito Blanco, Gran Canaria. Conveniently just a few stumbles away from a nice little restaurant. Well, the only restaurant within any sort of walking distance. I believe we deserve a good meal there tonight!
Over and out,
❤️
Erik, Adrienne II Skipper
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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.