Sam Landsman 
We’re cruising together again! Laura and Kevin picked up Sam from the Ketchikan airport around 11:00 a.m. (how cool is an airport that has a dinghy dock?!) and we set off together to cross Dixon Entrance. We have about ten days to get down to Port McNeill to start a flotilla trip around Vancouver Island, so no time for dallying. The weather today was good, tomorrow questionable, so we wanted … Read more
Clarence Strait, more than anywhere else in Alaska, has beaten me up. It’s a big body of water, open at the south end to Dixon Entrance, and even with just 15 knots of wind on the bow, it gets uncomfortable. From McHenry Anchorage I planned to head south in Clarence Strait to Kasaan Inlet to meet up with Tom and Caroline on Silver Bay. The weather had other plans. I … Read more
From Petersburg I had two goals: see as many new anchorages as possible, and make it to Ketchikan (only about 110 nautical miles) before a flight out of town in a week. Easy! After a morning of chores in Petersburg, I rode the flood south, to arrive at Papke’s Landing (roughly the mid-point, where the flood current from each side meets) at high water. The timing worked out nicely, but … Read more
When I first came to Alaska, I was unprepared for the scale. Even Southeast—the relatively small portion of the state where I’ve cruised—is truly vast. Somewhere around 70,000 people inhabit an area that stretches more than 300 miles south to north and a hundred miles west to east. Even a few miles from the population centers, it’s easy to find solitude. By solitude, I don’t just mean a lack of … Read more
Soon after the flotilla arrived in Juneau I had to leave the boat and return to the lower 48 by air. Juneau is a great place to do this since there’s first-come, first-served open moorage available (rather than hot-berthing), reasonable rates (~$230 for a month, with power!), and good airline service (Alaska and Delta fly multiple flights per day to/from Seattle). Leaving the boat in a strange port can be … Read more
We pulled anchor a little after 7:00 a.m. in order to arrive at the entrance (exit) to Ford’s Terror by about 8:00 a.m. We were a little early but knew from our experience coming in that the tidal swing was low and that meant a longer-than-usual window for transiting the rapids. Airship went through first and only noted about a knot and a half of opposing current, so the rest … Read more
Ford’s Terror is probably our favorite anchorage ever. There’s something about the challenge of getting in, the fact that you can only transit the entrance/exit once every twelve hours (knowing that the current at the entrance can run to 12 knots with large overfalls during non-slack) that makes it an accomplishment. This challenge is rewarded heavily by the enormous unspoiled majestic landscape that surrounds you once inside. Everywhere you look, … Read more
**Warning: this post has SO MANY PHOTOS** The Plan for Today: Leave Tracy Arm Cove by about 11:00 a.m. (so late!!), cruise up Endicott Arm to all the way to Dawes Glacier (or as far as we could get), spend some time playing in the ice, and then backtrack to Ford’s Terror so we’d reach the entrance about a half an hour or so before high slack in Juneau. As … Read more