Laura Domela 
The Pack Creek bear viewing area on Admiralty Island is permit-only between June 1 and September 10, and is located up near the top of Seymour Canal. The island is home to an estimated 1,500 brown bears — more than all the Lower 48 states combined. From Juneau via float plane, it’s probably only half an hour, but by (Slow)boat from Juneau, it’s about 74 nautical miles and takes two … Read more
We left Juneau on July 2nd, buddy boating with Carol and Park (on Akeeva), Jan and Stacy (on Ceci Kay) and a new passenger on Airship…Kevin’s mom, Shirley! We all found room on the dock at Taku Harbor and did a little exploring on shore. Dinner was a potluck on Ceci Kay (steaks, roasted potatoes, and more good stuff I can’t remember), and the next morning we all headed out … Read more
After a rainy but fun stay in Hoonah (including a couple pints and some Thai food at Icy Strait Brewing, of course) we left Hoonah close to 11:00 a.m. for our short cruise (~10 nautical miles) around to Flynn Cove. The three of us (Akeeva, Ceci Kay, and Airship) anchored in Flynn Cove, one of our favorite little spots on Icy Strait, and Kevin took the drone up for some … Read more
We left Sitka with all our flotilla boats (minus Safe Harbour, who was headed to Juneau to catch a flight) and anchored for the night in Appleton Cove. Kevin took the drone up for a few aerial shots of Appleton Cove: The next morning, we awoke to a whole lot of fog in Appleton Cove! The fog began to burn off just as one of the commercial crab boats came … Read more
Deep Bay to Sitka is a technical 30 nautical miles. The first challenge is Sergius Narrows, where currents run to 9 knots. Slack today was at 7:31 a.m. and it takes about 30 minutes to get from Deep Bay to the narrows. We left at 7:00 a.m. and the timing worked out perfectly. The next challenges are Olga Strait and Neva Strait. Not particularly challenging, really, but narrow, shallow, winding, … Read more
We left Takatz Bay, headed up Chatham Strait, then into Peril Strait and on to Deep Bay. Anchorage to anchorage is just over 53 nautical miles, one of the longer days of the trip. The forecast was for sun and light winds, which made it difficult to leave Takatz Bay — such a gorgeous anchorage with so much to explore — but having perfect weather for a long cruise was … Read more
Today we had a short hop up to Takatz Bay — about 9 nautical miles. Before departing we invited everyone over to Airship/Safe Harbour for breakfast: Laura’s crab cakes benedict (using the fresh crab we caught the day before), Sam’s breakfast potatoes, and coffee.We managed not to take any photos of our fancy breakfasts, but we’ll put our crab cake recipe down at the bottom of this post for anyone … Read more
Red Bluff Bay to Warm Springs Bay is a quick run…about 20 nautical miles, straight up Chatham Strait. But Chatham Strait can be a challenging body of water. It’s 130 nautical miles from south to north and eight miles east to west. A big body of water. Even 10-15 knots of wind can make for a bumpy ride. Safe Harbour and Airship got an early start, not because the weather … Read more