Many of you Slowboat readers have been part of this journey—chatting with me about the project, beta-reading early drafts, and cheering me on. I’m deeply grateful, and want to officially announce here on Slowboat, that my novel, titled Untamed Coast, will be published by Ballantine/Penguin Random House in about a year. How did we get here? Let’s rewind a bit. Back in 2016, while exploring the outside of Chichagof Island … Read more
We left Ketchikan yesterday morning after deciding we’d rather wait out this upcoming low pressure system (35kt winds and rain) at anchor in a pretty place with a view of trees and water, rather than at the dock in Ketchikan with a view of a very poorly maintained wooden boat (containing several dogs barking for most of the day) and a half sunk dinghy. We shopped and got enough produce … Read more
Last Friday we cruised from Portage Bay into Petersburg for a few days to wait out some super rainy weather. Dave and his brother Kyle (from Turnagain) flew home from Petersburg, and we’re on our own now. We left Petersburg late in the day on Sunday and anchored in Red Bay. On Monday it was still quite rainy, but Kevin went out fishing anyway to see if there were any … Read more
This morning we had another present on our anchor to deal with before we could leave our beautiful Honeydew Cove. All the prettiest spots seem to come with kelp! All the finger-crossing and whale-dancing we did this morning to conjure the whales today worked!! There were SO many whales out in Frederick Sound after we rounded Pinta Point. Several large groups…some breaching and some tail-slapping and fin-slapping…it was hard to … Read more
We had a gorgeous, calm cruise from Takatz Bay, across Chatham Strait and over to Honeydew today! Spotted a few whale spouts in the distance, but other than that, just blue skies and puffy clouds. As we were approaching Kuiu Island and Keku Strait, we could see fog ahead. Also, check out this crazy sky! We got into some thick fog and thought our fun was over as we neared … Read more
We pulled out of Hanus Bay late yesterday morning and headed east in Peril Strait, spotting this one humpback along the shore as we cruised past. Chatham Strait was just the slightest bit choppy in about 15kts of wind on the nose, but a beautiful cruise down to Takatz Bay. It started raining soon after we arrived, and when it stopped (for a minute) we got out in the dinghy … Read more
We left Klag Bay day before yesterday (Saturday) expecting 3ft swells at about 6-7 seconds, but conditions outside were a bit sportier than advertised. Not terrible, but more like 4-5ft at about 5-6 seconds, with the occasional set of steeper, closer together 5-6 footers. So just this one photo because the rest of the time I was busy hand steering so I could keep us on our southerly route while … Read more
A bit of a teaser for some news we’ll be announcing soon: Kevin is doing the final edits on a novel he wrote (mystery, thriller, historical fiction) that is set in the area we are now exploring. The inspiration for the book came from our visit in 2016, when we went in search of a place called “Radioville” where a guy named Joe Bauer ran a radio outpost in the … Read more