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.

LAND HO! As I am typing this, I just heard the crew yell ’ LAND HO!’ From the cockpit, as dawn broke we could spot the peaks of Fuerteventura on to port, such an amazing feeling after days of only the blue ocean around us (and some ships passing by).

We have shifted our course slightly west whilst still motoring to better place ourselves ahead of the wind filling in from the north east. Hopefully we can gain a little more apparent by then sailing south and maintaining our angle to the wind as it continues to veer.

Another tactical waypoint guides us to the north of Lanzarote where the trusty north easterlies promise to build on Thursday morning and hopefully will provide another impressive sail at the back end of our passage. The crew have settled in well despite a little seasickness in the first 24 hours which is pretty standard.

Yesterday we started our briefings on deck, and was very thankful to have the yankee up, the wind increased during the day and the rain started late morning. After the font had gone through, the wind eased off and I went up the rig to do a final rig check before departure. Even a little bit of sunshine came through while I was up there. 

Crew will arrive today at 1 pm, we have been monitoring the weather and it looks like we'll sit out some weather on Sunday and depart after that. We are kicking off the 2025 season with an all female crew, eager to jump onboard and make our way towards Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

Be careful what you wish for! As we drifted past the NW corner of Sicily we were fantasizing about wind and waves! Then we had a night of constant rain in our faces, a building sea state....

It’s 7am on - well I actually have no idea what day it is; such is the nature of offshore sailing. Probably day 3? Yes that’s right. We woke up on the first morning to an awful swell and no wind, contrasted with yesterday’s sunrise in which we were screaming along west from Stromboli…..

Well, the winds picked up last night and saw us reduce sail to 2 reefs in the main and the staysail, yet FALKEN still flew on, often making 9 knots over the ground.

There was a close call today when it seemed we were running short of coffee. Our U.S. contingent were looking a little worried for a while until we were able to establish a strategy to ration the next 60 hours ahead of our arrival.

It's almost halfway for the FALKEN team of adventurers. This evening, we expect a short lull in conditions which we will once again time to charge our batteries, and then it looks like life on a heel until we reach our final destination of Lagos.

After reaching across the Western Approaches to the English Channel under Yankee and Main, the wind veered as predicted, so we gybed and hoisted the big pink kite to try to maintain speed. After a full day under spinnaker, it was time to drop her and ready the boat for an overnight.

The nasty low pressure that had us all wet and bothered has finally passed, leaving us with a nice weather window to set off to Portugal. It can't possibly be real that the majority of this trip south could be downwind, and yet early forecasts suggest exactly that...

The weather has been extremely fickle around the British Isles this past week, making this an exceptionally challenging passage to plan for. We have been through plans A, B, C, D,… trying to find the best ‘next port of call’. Not really sure how far down the alphabet we are at this point.  But quite unexpectedly these alternative routes have made it possible to tick off several Bucket-list items for the crew...

We spent a day in Dover dodging intense thunder on the English Channel. We walked up the white cliffs to see Dover Castle dating back to the 1100s, a roman lighthouse(!) and WW2 tunnels from where they controlled Operation Dynamo saving hundreds of thousand soldiers from Dunkirk.

Everyone seemed to have a good time exploring London yesterday. We all gathered on the boat for a pre-dinner drink and then headed off to The Dickens Inn at St. Katherines docks for our supper. We enjoyed the night and ended with a weather and route briefing from captain Erik. Our next port of call will be Guernsey island!

Truly stunned to be moored up right next to the iconic landmark Tower Bridge. I see the classic red buses driving over bridge and we meet wonderful people living in a barge community right here on the river bank.

It is incredible how much change you can get in 24h out at sea. So far, this trip has not disappointed in terms of variable conditions and keeps proving an amazing experience for FALKEN and her crew.

I get briefly woken up in the early morning by a WOHOOO scream from the helmsman standing on deck above my head. I guess they were surfing down a wave. After a while my first mate and now my good friend Alex comes down from his shift.

After a few days spent getting the boat ready in Marstrand the crew finally joined yesterday, giving FALKEN a warm cosy home feeling. We’re now finalizing the safety briefs before setting off in a couple of hours.

The spinnaker was successfully hoisted and is still flying. The crew were either very quiet, or I was sleeping hard, most likely the later, as this was the first time many of the crew flew a spinnaker. The wind has continued to drop throughout the day, and is now down to 7-9 kts. of true wind, sailing towards the Swedish coast at a comfortable 7 kts.

We’re in the fat part of the North Sea, west of Denmark, but feels like we’re in the Trades today. Blue skies, puffy white clouds and a steady 15-20 knots on the beam. FALKEN is cruising at an easy 9-10 knots on a mostly calm sea. The watch just finished cleaning up from turkey chilli dinner ala Capt. Andy, and half the boat is napping with full bellies.