Cruising Down the West Coast in a Nordhavn 55 | Leg 3 | Crescent City to Monterey, CA

According to Rich our magic weather router, it was looking like Monday morning (September 30) would be the optimal time for us to head further south. Unfortunately, Kevin (Morris) had meetings in San Jose to attend staring Monday, so he booked a Sunday flight from Crescent City to San Jose, and the three of us (me, Alison, and Kevin Jeffries) would continue with one less crew member. But with a … Read more

Cruising Down the West Coast in a Nordhavn 55 | Waiting for Weather in Crescent City, CA

Well it appears we’ll have a few days (okay, maybe a week) to kill here in Crescent City due to some weather we’d rather not be out in, so we’ll get to know this town and its surrounds better in the meantime. Day 1: We all happily slept in on our first morning in the marina, but Kevin Jeffries was up (temporarily) to take one of the dogs out and … Read more

Cruising Down the West Coast in a Nordhavn 55 | Leg 2 | Grays Harbor WA to Crescent City CA

Thursday, 4:15 a.m. — Our original plan was to catch the early morning high slack at the Grays Harbor bar, which meant heading out before dark, again. However, in the morning we didn’t get an agreeable bar report (boooo!), so we opted to wait until the midday low slack and went back to bed (yaaaaay!). Thursday, 11:15 a.m. — We left our slip at Westport Marina after a few more … Read more

Cruising Down the West Coast in a Nordhavn 55 | Leg 1 | Neah Bay to Grays Harbor WA

Kevin and I had a few days off in Victoria after our Vancouver Island flotilla ended, so we spent the time relaxing, exploring, eating out, and of course, doing boat projects. We fixed a plumbing leak in the washer/dryer plumbing, worked on getting the boat all dried out with our new dehumidifier, went to the IMAX theater at the museum to see the Great Bear Rainforest movie (which was very … Read more

Airship | Tracy Arm and Ford’s Terror

We had a week off in between flotilla legs, so we invited friends Jake and Patti to fly up from San Diego and join us on a trip down to Tracy Arm and Ford’s Terror, and we buddy-boated with Ralph on Jester while his daughter Sara and her husband David were in town. We left Juneau on the morning of the 26th and headed for Tracy Arm Cove (~42nm south … Read more

Day 9 | Flotilla to Alaska | Blunden Harbour to Fury Cove

Around Cape Caution! When we fell asleep last night, Environment Canada (Central Coast zone) was calling for “wind light” and seas one meter all day. Windy (ECMWF model) was showing this: Forecasts don’t get much better than that, but forecasts aren’t always right. So when we woke up at 4:30 a.m. we checked West Sea Otter buoy, where the wind was gusting to 4 knots and the seas were a … Read more

Airship | More Winter Cruising and a Handful of Boat Projects

Last Monday we took delivery of our new dinghy. We bought an AB ALX 11 from Guyer Boatworks in Bellingham. Center console, aluminum hull, plenty of storage…all things we did not have on our old Zodiac that will certainly make this one heavier but way more comfortable. (This particular AB ALX 11 was actually a 2017 model that Guyer Boatworks had used in boat shows over the past two years, … Read more

Airship | Winter Cruising in the San Juan Islands

Kevin and I had a handful of boat projects to take care of on Airship last week, but as soon as we finished the projects that required we be at a dock (and near the hardware store and West Marine) we took off for a few days of winter cruising in the islands. We are seriously enjoying the extra space and livability this Nordic Tug 42 has over our NT34. … Read more