Laura Domela 
Boating is for men. I know. Not the first sentence you expected from me, was it? But hang in there and we’ll have a fun little ride. I started boating for real, with my own boat, in 2014 (in my 40s), but I grew up around sailboats and sailing. My grandfather had a sailboat. Our family friend Conrad had a sailboat. My mom had a sailboat. I spent a lot … Read more
Did you miss our seminars at the Seattle Boat Show earlier this year? Well we’re giving you another chance to catch up with us…we’ll be at TrawlerFest 2018 in Bremerton, Washington, just days before we take off with our 2018 Flotilla to Alaska! Trawlerfest runs from May 1 through May 5th, and we’ll be giving three 2-hour seminars on May 1st and 2nd. Seminars will be held at the Kitsap Conference … Read more
It’s difficult to find a high-quality new cruising boat for a reasonable price these days. By and large, the new boats being built are semi-custom – basic configurations with dizzying numbers of custom options that let the customer design exactly the boat of their dreams. Unfortunately, that means enormous amounts of labor to build each boat by hand, almost from scratch – and that means big bucks. Such big bucks, … Read more
We’ve cruised Hood Canal in Airship before, and although it’s a long body of water with not many of what we’d call “destination anchorages”, there’s still quite a bit to see and do, especially when the weather is nice. We left Pleasant Harbor on Friday morning and cruised the 21nm or so down to the “Great Bend” and found space on the dock at the Hood Canal Marina (same ownership … Read more
The Slowboat team had a very successful Seattle Boat Show this year. All of our seminars were well-attended and we got to connect with new and old friends. Plus: boats!!! Airship left Seattle on Monday and headed over to Blake Island for some hiking and relaxing. It was nice to be back at Blake Island, but I think I like it better in the snow! We left Blake Island on … Read more
January 26 – February 3, 2018 The Slowboat team will be presenting ten different free seminars at the 2018 Seattle Boat Show. We are excited to once again share our experience and expertise with the boat show crowd to help you have a richer, safer, more satisfying cruising experience. In addition to leading flotillas up the Inside Passage to Alaska every summer, each member of our crew brings more specific … Read more
Nine humpbacks surface and exhale fifty yards from our dinghy, between us and shore. Dolphins leap out of the water, inches away, splashing water into our small vessel. A family of brown bears forage on the beach 20 feet away, munching grass. An icy chill briefly blasts as we motor through a waterfall that tumbles from rocky cliffs into the ocean. Tidal rapids roar as we zoom through against the flow. … Read more
Winter in the San Juan Islands is our favorite time for cruising up here, and this is why: This is Fossil Bay on Sucia Island, and there’s no one else here. No one on the dock. No one on the mooring balls. In the summer, this place is absolutely packed (so we hear–we’ve managed to be in Alaska every summer since we bought Airship). Today, the sun is shining, the … Read more