Cruising Desolation Sound with Classic Books and Stories
September 26, 2023
I have always been an excellent armchair sailor. Before any major voyage, I scour bookstores, websites, libraries, archives, and friends’ bookshelves. Sure, I’ll pick up cruising guides, nature studies, or an occasional…
Finding Our Own Way in Pole Pass
September 21, 2023
The Leonard family relaxes on Teal after participating in the 1980 Olympia Harbor Days Races. Left to right are Charlie, Linda, Lisa (the author), and Don Leonard. A family cruising a classic wooden tug tries to transit a…
A Boat, A Baby, and Bears!
September 14, 2023
The author and daughter, Vela, take a turn at the helm rounding Cape Caution. Readers of 48° North surely recall Lauren Upham’s previously published stories of cruising the Salish Sea, baking sourdough on-board, and bringing…
Is This Even Real?! 48° North Cruising Rally 2023
September 7, 2023
The best sailing of the trip, broad reaching in Plumper Sound with breeze in the mid teens! I woke early and climbed the companionway stairs of our stern-tied Canadian Sailcraft 40 in Annette Inlet on Prevost Island. The…
#TBT High Latitude Sailing – Immersion Style
August 31, 2023
In our latest Throwback Thursday, PNW journalist David Schmidt has a conversation with adventurer and writer, Cameron Dueck. The article ran in the July 2012 issue of 48° North, a few years after Dueck departed Victoria, BC,…
#TBT: Five Days, Four Islands – A Brief Journal of the Unexpected
August 17, 2023
In our latest Throwback Thursday, we follow along on a sailing journey through the San Juan Islands where every day and moment must be savored. "Five Days, Four Islands" first appeared in the April 2004 issue of 48° North A…
Shifting Gears: Mechanical Machinations
August 15, 2023
Powerboat cruising is fast and fun... when the engine works! Several days into our thus-far blissful and easy summer cruise on our new-to-us C-Dory 22, Sea Lab, we landed in Edmonds to refuel. My partner in life and…
Alluring Alaska: The Ups, Downs and Rewards of Cruising “The Last Frontier”
July 20, 2023
Yahtzee anchored and stern-tied at Fox Island Spit. There are times aboard our boats when everything seems to run counter to expectations. We’ve all been there. This particular time, our family was blasting into a sudden…
#TBT: The Seas of the “Suzy Wong”
July 6, 2023
In our latest Throwback Thursday, we revisit four Seattle shipmates who survived hurricane force winds, thunderstorms, and barely missing a potential “show down” with pirates and armed soldiers, as they sailed from Hong Kong…
Mischief Around Vancouver Island: Part 2
July 5, 2023
Mischief’s counter-clockwise route around Vancouver Island. After leaving Seattle and heading north, following the east side of Vancouver Island, the crew of the Eagle 40 trawler, Mischief — my partner Karen and I — had…