Whales to Port! A Flotilla Cruise Through the Inside Passage
Shortly after 9 a.m., the mist over Ketchikan Marina lifted. The crews of our six Grand Banks cruisers fired the twin diesel engines, loosened mooring lines and coordinated radios as anticipation was building. One by one, we…
Heavy Air in Hecate Strait: Wild Wind & Waves in the Teeth of a Gale
Writing about our rough crossing of Hecate Strait isn’t something that comes easily—it’s actually a memory I’d rather not relive. Learning from your mistakes is an important trait of successful sailors, though, and the…
Sitting on the side of…
Gather around your…A sublime farewell tour of The Great Land
When we sailed through Southeast Alaska for two months in the spring and summer of 2017, one of the places we wished we’d gone was south through Chatham Strait making stops in Kuiu Island and then east to Prince of Wales…
Endless Alaska summer rolls along
Anchored to the west of a tall mountain peak rising vertically from sea level, the sun is up and filling the bay, but not quite touching Yahtzee. Rowing towards a sun-splashed beach, we soon feel the warm sun rays and scurry…
Soaking in the experience of Sitka Sound
When the anchor was set, I scrambled to get the dinghy off the foredeck and Yahtzee switched from offshore mode back to cruising mode. We’d just made landfall after four days crossing the Gulf of Alaska and Goddard Hot…
Retracing our steps across the Gulf of Alaska
By all measures, the Gulf of Alaska is a large, imposing body of water. Even in the summer, weather windows to get across are short and can be few and far between. Because of this, many mariners choose to take a longer…
Looking up into the…