59º North team

Andy Schell

Co-Founder | FALKEN Skipper | 🇺🇸 🇸🇪

Andy started 59° North with Mia back in 2014 with the idea to share his passion for offshore sailing with like-minded people. He’s sailed close to 100,000 miles offshore, crossed the Atlantic 7 times, & skippered ISBJØRN to 80º North in Svalbard. Andy started our podcast, On the Wind, in 2013. The show now reaches over 15k listeners per episode and has featured legends like Sir Robin Knox Johnston, Dee Caffari, and John Kretschmer. Andy writes regularly for publications like Yachting World and Sail Magazine.

MIA KARLSSON

Co-Founder | FALKEN Mate | 🇸🇪 🇺🇸

Mia grew up in the countryside in Sweden a non-sailor until meeting Andy in New Zealand in 2006. Her first sailing trip was aboard SOUTHERN ENDURANCE, a 28-foot charter boat in the Marlboro Sounds on NZ’s South Island. Since then she’s sailed over 50,000 miles offshore, crossed the Atlantic 7 times (on 4 different boats), sailed ISBJØRN to 80º North and earned her Yachtmaster Offshore license.

Mia is behind our standard of serving amazing, home-cooked food on our passages. When she isn’t sailing, she’s often picking mushrooms and berries in the Swedish forest with family.

August Sandberg

ISBJØRN OWNER & Skipper | The QUARTERDECK Editor | 🇳🇴

August was raised on a tiny island on the west coast of Norway, where he and his parents were the only inhabitants. A remote and self-reliant childhood near the water translated perfectly to long-distance offshore sailing.

After serving a year in the army as an Arctic Jaeger on the Norwegian-Russian border, he started film studies in Bergen. While studying film production, August renovated an old Baltic 37, and then proceeded to circumnavigate the Atlantic with her after he got his degree. He then spent several years working in the film industry focusing on documentaries, as his father and grandfather before him.

After hearing the call of the sea once more, August became a professional skipper, operating mainly in the challenging and harsh Norwegian Arctic. He became fast friends of Andy & Mia after lending them a rifle for polar bear protection for their trip to the Arctic, and later meeting them on Svalbard, skippering an expedition in the same waters.

August became a dad in 2021 and lives with his son Amund and his partner Karolina in the fjords outside of Bergen, Norway. August is ISBJØRN’s primary, full-time skipper!

Alex Laline

FALKEN SKIPPER & MATE | BOSUN'S MATE | 🇪🇸

Alex’s experiences vary from light, high-performance racing yachts to big, heavy expedition yachts. Alex started sailing at the young age of 4 and he's been hooked to the Ocean ever since, either sailing or surfing.

He has accumulated over 115,000 nautical miles over the past years as a professional sailor, racing all over the world as part of a team in the Clipper Round the World race, working on an expedition yacht in the Arctic Circle and doing a variety of deliveries.

He had his own Mini Transat boat and has been doing single-handed and crewed offshore races for several years including racing boats like the Figaro 3, Class 40 and Volvo 70's.

Adam Browne

CHIEF Bosun |  🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Traditionally the ‘boatswain’ (bosun) was a ship's officer responsible for maintenance of the ship and it’s equipment. Which is exactly what Adam is doing for both FALKEN & ISBJØRN. Adam is a keen sailor as well and is sailing as mate aboard our boats.

Adam has worked around the world as a chef, a leader of youth expeditions to Africa and Asia, climbed to Everest Base Camp and sailed across the Atlantic. He is a qualified Yacht Master, Dive Master, Ski Instructor, Mountain Leader + Yoga teacher. He has many great skills (still working on his nunchucks) + doesn’t think he’ll ever know what he wants to be when he grows up.

Adam, his wife Laura & their boat dog Angus sail a Hallberg-Rassy 312 mk II which he & Laura converted to a full-electric OceanVolt drive during their extensive refit of the boat. Indeed Angus has been aboard FALKEN for a quick tour, and Laura does a lot of the graphic design for 59º North.

Adam was supervising the FALKEN rebuild in the UK and worked alongside the boatyard there to ensure the project was completed on time and to our demanding high standards.

When they’re not sailing, Adam, Laura & Angus live ashore in rural Scotland.

nikki henderson

OFFSHORE RACING SKIPPER | 🇬🇧

Nikki has been sailing professionally since she was 18, skippering three trans-Atlantic ARC races (twice as youngest skipper in the fleet), and later becoming the youngest-ever skipper of the Clipper Round the World Race, coming 2nd in 2018. She has sailed as guest skipper aboard MAIDEN, was part of the winning team twice in the Race to Alaska; 2019 & 2023, and skippered aboard La VAGABONDE with Greta Thunberg aboard.

Nikki met Andy in the fall of 2020 and first sailed ICEBEAR in Antigua, then raced with us aboard SPICA in the 2021 Gotland Runt Race. Nikki skippered ICEBEAR in 2021 and 2022, FALKEN in 2023 and will be 59º North’s racing skipper in 2024 & beyond.

Emily Caruso

FALKEN SKIPPER & MATE | 🇬🇧

Emily Caruso is from Somerset in the UK and is passionate about sailing, adventure and people. She has worked as a freelance sailing professional for the last 18 years and is committed to sharing both her passion and experience with all that sail with her. In addition to her expedition sailing experience across the globe, she previously skippered Gipsy Moth IV, Sir Francis Chichester’s iconic ketch (Chichester made history when he solo circumnavigated with only one stop, in Australia, in the early 1960s, and paved the way for Knox-Johnston, Moitessier and the other non-stop circumnavigators that followed).

Emily has trained thousands of amateur sailors taking part in the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race since 2008. Her freelance portfolio includes working with the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, RYA training, and a number of bespoke projects. When not afloat, Emily teaches Leadership and Management for the MCA and has a special interest in promoting the 'human element' within the maritime sector.

Emily has also been published on numerous occasions within the yachting press and wider media; she loves to write. She is all about finding ways to make our world inclusive and to keep it fun.

Jon Amtrup

ISBJØRN SKIPPER | 🇳🇴

Jon Amtrup is a Norwegian sailor, captain, author, and Arctic explorer. Of his sailing accomplishments, Jon has sailed the entire coast of Norway several times in both winter and summer, circumnavigated Svalbard, crossed the Atlantic, explored Greenland, crossed the North Sea many times, and raced in several national and international double-handed and single-handed regattas.

Jon runs his own business consulting with high latitude sailing expeditions on planning, weather, and routing assistance. A member of the The Explorers Club, Jon is the author of several maritime books. Encouraged by Andy, he also hosts his own sailing podcast in Norway. Jon skippered ISBJØRN in the high latitudes in 2022, and returns for more in 2023, 2024 & beyond.

MARY VAUGHAN-JONES

FALKEN SKIPPER & MATE | 🇬🇧

Mary grew up in northwest England, spending most of her childhood outdoors in the Lake District. She didn’t start sailing until mher early twenties, when she impulsively signed up for a leg of the Clipper Race. There she met Alex Laline her first week there, and he basically talked her into doing the whole circumnavigation! Since then she has accumulated about 70,000 miles offshore including skippering adventure yachts in the Pacific and west coast of Scotland, as First Mate for the Clipper Race, as well as freelance instructing work in the Caribbean and UK.

Laura Parent

mission control shore support | 🇺🇸

Laura grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with an insatiable wanderlust and the influence of the boats and waterways of her hometown. Her father’s career as a Bar Pilot gave her early exposure to working on the water and a love for the culture of the sea.

After earning a science degree, Laura followed her dream and the call of the sea. She achieved her 100-ton USCG master's license at age 23 and logged 20,000 nautical miles over several years working as crew or watch officer on a variety of vessels: traditional sailing schooners, tourist boats, racing yachts, megayachts, and expedition ships. Deciding to take a break from the merchant mariner’s life, she dropped anchor in the San Francisco Bay Area and began working in sales and operations for an international adventure travel company. Since the pandemic Laura has been a sailing instructor on SF Bay.

She was childhood friends with Samantha Wall, Pam Wall’s late daughter; and the first time she slept on a boat was sailing with the Wall family on KANDARIK in the Florida Keys during high school spring break. Sailing around the world is still on her bucket list!

Jojo Pickering

FALKEN & ISBJØRN RELIEF SKIPPER | 🇬🇧

Born in Uganda, JoJo spent the first six years of her life on a boat sailing from East Africa via the Seychelles, South Africa and Brazil on a 42ft gaff-rigged cutter with no engine or radio, navigating with a Walker’s Log and sextant.

No surprise then, that her sailing methodology is rooted in a traditional sailing ethos, having crossed the Atlantic twice and racked up 20,000 NM before the age of five.

Her teenage years were spent sailing in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the US Seaboard and the North Sea before landfall in Falmouth (UK) when an encounter with a circus-theatre troupe brought about a radical change of life-style.

Jump forward a few years and JoJo’s bond with sailing was rekindled with an Atlantic circuit with her novice family crew on their 35ft cutter, Island Swift. Happy to go against the flow, she ran away from the circus… and has been sailing professionally ever since on larger vessels ranging from Clipper 60s to 100-year-old Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters.

Erik Nordborg

ISBJØRN & falken SKIPPER | 🇸🇪

Erik grew up on the west coast of Sweden – never far from boats and sailing. Both sailboat racing and cruising have always been a big part of his life. Being a professional meteorologist Erik has been involved in several major sailing events and races across the globe including the America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean Race, Vendée Globe and many more. As a sailor Erik races and competes in the exciting Figaro Class in France. Erik has been skippering FALKEN’S sistership CELESTE and knows the boats very well. He joined us in 2023 as a relief skipper on FALKEN and will be skippering both ISBJØRN & FALKEN in 2024.

MANOT BERGER

FALKEN Relief MATE | 🇨🇭

Manot grew up far from the water, at a 1,000m altitude in Switzerland. Sailing remained a dream until he moved near Lake Leman, to study philosophy. There, he stepped onto his first sailboat, and sailed until he became intimate with the alpine lake's temperament. Passionate about many things, and with a strong taste for adventure and exploration, sailing soon became his main endeavor. Exploring the English channel at first and parts of the north Atlantic, he dreams of sailing to the most remote places of the planet.

Emma Garschagen

Podcast Co-HOst | 🇺🇸

Emma joined the 59º North team in 2019 after graduating from Kenyon College, where she studied environmental science. Emma has logged over 25,000 ocean miles with us. She has crossed the Atlantic twice, and in 2022 sailed up to 80° North on ISBJØRN in Svalbard. Emma has also sailed as a student and deckhand on tall ships, worked on traditional wooden boats, driven launch boats, and recently skippered a Broadreach voyage with high schoolers in the Caribbean.

Emma currently co-hosts the ON THE WIND podcast twice per season and is a Relief Mate on FALKEN. When she isn’t sailing, Emma climbs, skis, and paints as much as she can.

Lee Cumberland

Podcast Producer | 🇺🇸

Lee have been friends with Mia & Andy since 2012 when he first started doing deliveries and long before the business started. Since then, Lee has helped out in all aspects of 59º North. Lee sailed on ISBJØRN with us in the 2019 Caribbean 600 race, from Annapolis to the BVI on ICEBEAR, and sailed from the Chesapeake Bay to the Panama Canal and back with his wife Rachel on their own Tayana 37 SATORI.

These days Lee, trained as a sound engineer and musician, is the producer for the ‘On the Wind’ podcast.

Chad Lanoway

Tracker map developer | 🇺🇸

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Chad lives in a farmhouse with his wife, Katie. He is a proud veteran of the U.S. Army with multiple combat tours as a scout for the 101st Airborne Division and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

While listening to 59º North podcasts during my computer science undergraduate homework, Chad reached out to us for sailing-related programming ideas for a capstone project, and the tracking map evolved from that. He quickly realized this was a great way to work on projects involving spatiotemporal data during his graduate studies, as well as a chance to work with a team of professionals he admired.

Chad joined FALKEN on the 2nd passage of 2024, sailing from Las Palmas to Mindelo, Cape Verde.

Chris Kobusch

FALKEn master rigger | 🇩🇪

Chris has been working professionally on yachts ever since completing his Yachtmaster in 2009. Having logged more than 165,000 nautical miles since, Chris has sailed and raced all around the world on a variety of yachts from small, modern Cape31s to big classic 50m schooners.

During the 2017-18 Clipper Round The World Race Chris skippered the Chinese entry QINGDAO and his team achieved a 3rd overall. After the Clipper Race Chris spent two years in the high latitudes skippering Skip Novak's sailing expedition yacht PELAGIC AUSTRALIS, and continues to sail with Skip on the new flagship VINSON of ANTARCTICA.

James austrums

Ship's Photographer | 🇬🇧

James is 59 North’s ‘Ship’s Photographer’ and has sailed with us both in Scotland in 2017, for two months above the Arctic Circle in summer 2018, and on the passage south from Annapolis-BVI in 2019. James was along to document the 2018 and 2022 adventures to Svalbard. Not really a sailor beforehand, James has now sailed thousands of miles with 59° North.

James lives in the UK and is an arborist, avid climber, and rabbit enthusiast. You can see his incredible work and buy prints of his adventures at jamesaustrums.com.