2025-2 | FALKEN | Las Palmas - Antigua

It is now Wednesday afternoon, February 5th. It feels like a long time ago that we made landfall in Antigua, when we spotted the glow on the horizon early in the morning and eventually saw the island of Antigua peak out of the water.

It is easy to flip your mind over to shore life, and start to dream about that good burger or cold drink, family and friends that are in Antigua to greet us, a warm shower and a chance to stretch your legs beyond 65 ft! But we don’t want to burst this bubble, and have to remind ourselves to enjoy this very last moment of the open ocean, because before we know it, we will be back ashore again.

We have sunrises of lemon yellow, pink fluffy clouds deep golden sunsets and the sea is a dark aquamarine blue rather than grey. The rain squalls with gusty winds seem to be behind us although maybe this is too early to say.

As the saying goes…do something ever day that scares you…..try to imagine……..2 am, pitch black, sustained winds at 25 knots, gusts approaching 40 knots, ocean swell at 3m……there you are at the helm, hand steering this 65’ sailboat safely towards Antigua.    White-knuckled, you wonder, what am I doing here?????  After your watch, your crash into bunk with a great sense of accomplishment. Each time at the helm feeling more confident.

Life onboard has turned into a very nice routine, and we keep the boat clean and tidy, the morning watch vacuums the floors and clean the inside every day, the afternoon team scrubs the cockpit, and Emily (skipper) and I take turn cleaning the heads daily. After dinner, the on-watch take turns to do the dishes and clean up the galley, and you would be surprised how clean the boat is after nearly 2 weeks at sea with 11 people on a 65 feet space.

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.

This has been a life long dream to sail an ocean. I can’t imagine any better way of fulfilling such a dream as signing onto FALKEN as a working crew member. The boat is safe, fully prepared, rigged, equipped for whatever Mother Nature can throw at us. With Emily and Mia in charge and all of us as willing crew, it is a marvelous experience that I will forever treasure

Our dear Brandon has already introduced all of our crew and he named me Jeannette ‘the Brave” turning fears into memories. And this can’t be more accurate because that is exactly how it feels for me.  I have been wandering quite a long time what offshore sailing is for me, is it my dream or is it a nightmare? Am I made for this or I just want to want this? Can I handle THE ocean?

Once we ‘turned the corner’ and started to head west, we have been in proper trade winds, with winds 20-25 kts, and many squalls around. Not so much rain, but clouds that had brought winds in the 30-35 kts and occasional upper 30. FALKEN has been a rocket ship with two reefs in the main and a partially furled Yankee, surfing down the waves at 12-13 kts at times, with many speed records over 14 kts. I think Vilgot hold the ‘official record’ at 15.3 kts

Well yesterday’s crew delight was a sighting of numerous whales. I happened to be cooking dinner at the time and so my only experience of them was a photograph taken by Kevin. This was probably a good thing because upon seeing both their size and proximity, let’s just say I had a slightly different facial expression to that of the majority.

Our skipper is Emily, a brave sailor with knowledge to rival the eldest of veterans. And yet, she isn’t doom and gloom, her way or the highway, but has enough charisma to make even Davy Jones chuckle with glee. Her first mate, Mia, continues this trend. Bringing smiles a plenty, mirth of the merry, and stories. Stories of heroism, endurance and humor. Passing the time as we dawdle away in mother nature. Which leads me to the youngest of the group, the apprentice, Vilgot. Who shouldn’t be considered any less wiser because of his age. For he too brings experience in bundles, stories in droves, and enthusiasm in spades.

For me, the key to managing a long passage is to set small wins or milestones and tonight the distance to waypoint finally dropped below the 2000 mark. The appearance of the waning moon has made anticipating the swell a little easier but nonetheless the crew are adapting to a bigger sea on the beam and fickle winds that can be quite gusty at times.

Think about that for a moment. It affords all of us the chance to get a real feel for this boat, and to hone our helming skills. Last night, the conditions allowed us to steer for some hours by the glow of the stars, before the clouds came across the night sky and our focus shifted to the compass.

The last 24 hours have been amazing though, sailing in almost a flat sea, with a gentle swell rolling in. Dolphins coming by visiting us at the bow many times a day. And yesterday the evening watch saw what they thought was an asteroid, the sail lit up and a bright light lit up the sky for a few seconds

After sailing on FALKEN from Ellös to Marstrand I submitted my application and ended up on this Atlantic passage from Las Palmas to Antigua. I could not be more excited and great full to learn from the professional staff working for 59º North and meet all of the amazing crew for this passage, it is truly a dream come true!

The next goal is to reach 20N ahead of the building swell that is the result of a deep low well north of us and its associated fronts. From there we should be able to sail directly towards Antigua albeit responding to the later forecasts as we proceed.

We are now settled in nicely onboard, but it usually takes a couple of days until everyone have caught up on their sleep and a fully emerged in the watch schedule of being awake a few hours at night, and nap during the day.