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.

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.