We made it!

17 February 2025

We made it!

As mentioned, we spent the night making as little eastward progress as possible. In fact, we ended up going quite a bit west! And in the end, that worked out well, because we had lost some time, and as a result, after the first strong gust of wind, we also caught a bit of the second one.

The first gust wasn’t too bad, and we made a lot of progress northward. Then the wind eased a little, but soon the second squall hit. We had strong wind! Luckily, we were able to bear away a bit since we had made enough west the night before, so we no longer had the risk of ending up in the lee of the Falklands.

After a night of fast sailing, the finish line was finally ‘in sight’! We postponed breakfast a bit because at 7:33 AM ship’s time, we crossed the 50 degrees South line in the Atlantic Ocean. That marked the completion of our rounding of Cape Horn!

But that didn’t mean we were done, even though for many it felt like it. We still had about 200 miles to go to Stanley. The big gusty wind had passed, but there was still a good, sailable breeze. We took full advantage of that to push on in a final sprint to the harbor. The whole day was fantastic sailing, although we did struggle a bit with the short, steep swell. By nightfall, we reached the lee of the islands, and the waves slowly started to disappear. That’s when our lady really started to move, as if she knew we were almost at the harbor!

With flat water, wind force 5-6, and a beautiful starry sky, we covered a huge distance. And on Sunday, the wind stayed steady, so we kept pushing hard! It was truly a nice finishing touch to this journey. But, all good things must come to an end, and that happened when we came out from behind the islands and suddenly the wind was coming from ahead. That’s when it was time to start the engine and drop the sails.

We arrived last night, and our berth was already ready for us. After arrival, we had a celebratory beer together, and there was (understandably) an euphoric mood aboard after a successful journey! We covered a total of 6691 miles in 46 days (which means an average speed of 6.06 knots), and between the last time the engine was off and the engine came on again, we sailed 4240 miles non-stop!

Today, we’ve been busy cleaning the boat. The deck and superstructure are being thoroughly scrubbed, and the hatches are being opened one by one. Inside, everything has been vacuumed, and we’re wiping everything down with cloths. Later, we’ll mop the floors, and then we’ll have a wonderfully fresh-smelling, clean ship!