Laura Domela 
“Can I call you right back? A couple orcas just surfaced right in front of the boat and I don’t want to hit them,” I frantically told the U.S. Customs officer as I eased the throttle back. “No problem, that’ll happen,” the officer responded. Welcome to Alaska. We were motoring north in Tongass Narrows, on our way into Ketchikan after a three-week transit through British Columbia. Anchored in Foggy Bay … Read more
(Updated June 2024). Ford’s Terror might just be the most beautiful place on the planet. Cliffs—absolutely enormous granite walls, really—rise from water’s edge to snowcapped bowls and peaks 5000 feet above. Countless waterfalls, some trickles, others torrents, plunge from these peaks. Bears forage ashore. Dolphins frolic around anchored boats. The scale of Ford’s Terror is difficult to comprehend and impossible to convey. It’s like Yosemite, but with water in the … Read more
We left beautiful Klag Bay on Thursday morning (August 4), backtracking out Smooth Channel a little ways to see if we could locate the island where Radioville lived. Bill Pierre in Rose’s Bar in Pelican told us to look for a red shack, and in the Evergreen book Sam had, we managed to find reference to Radioville with a line from the description box to an island (lower left)… The Douglass guide, … Read more
We left Pelican on Tuesday morning. Lisianski Inlet was gray and drizzly and foggy. This fish boat was just in front of us out of the harbor: The trip out to Lisianski Strait and on to the outside of Chichagof Island was mellow and the weather gradually improved as we continued further west. Hey look! It’s the Gulf of Alaska! The wind was 10-12 knots with 3-4 foot swells, so not a … Read more
We left Glacier Bay National Park on Sunday (July 31) and headed to Elfin Cove (through South Inian Pass in Cross Sound). It was nice and calm as we left Glacier Bay, and we even got a little humpback breach on our way out. A humpback near shore, closer to Elfin Cove: We were excited to revisit Elfin Cove and Pelican this year with Tiffani and Deke and Sam and Anna. We tried … Read more
After our Reid Glacier on-foot excursion (and brunch), we cruised around the corner to check out Lamplugh Glacier and then into Johns Hopkins Inlet. We took Airship, and Sam and Anna left Safe Harbour anchored in Reid Inlet and instead went in Sam’s dinghy. That way we’d have Airship as a base and could trade off passengers in the dinghy (able to go closer and be more nimble among the icebergs). The … Read more
On Friday morning we dinghied over to Reid Glacier and walked around for an hour or so, exploring the ice and rocks and waterfalls. It’s difficult to explain just how cool this was, so I’m going to post a ton of photos instead of words. Sam and Anna in the fast dinghy: Arriving on shore: Tiny dots, bottom center of photo are Sam and Anna: Taking turns standing on … Read more
We checked in on Wednesday afternoon (July 27) at Bartlett Cove just in time to make the 2pm orientation. Not much room at the dock (well, mostly due to the inconsiderate spaces left between other docked boats) so we rafted Airship onto Safe Harbour and hustled up to the Vis (code for Visitor’s Center). The park rangers showed us a film about the park and its rules in a tiny hot … Read more