Airship | South from Prince Rupert: Whales, and More Fun Challenging Anchorages

We left Cow Bay Marina in Prince Rupert in thick fog, which cleared gradually as we made our way south. We cruised through Ogden Channel around to the west side of Pitt Island, and stopped at Newcombe Harbour for the night. The weather was quite rainy most of the time, so we didn’t do much besides music and dinner and a movie. The next day we were originally aiming for … Read more

Airship | Ketchikan to Prince Rupert

More sun as we left Ketchikan! We stopped at the fuel dock and filled up all of the things — diesel, dinghy gas, and propane — and then continued on our way. The night before we left Ketchikan, we grilled up the last of our king salmon and served it over rice with soy sauce, Japanese seaweed paste, green onions, and a side of sautéed zucchini. Yum! Normally when we … Read more

Airship | Around Ketchikan: Exploring Revillagigedo Island

We had originally planned to head south at the end of last week (Thursday/Friday after Labor Day) but we had a few more work things we wanted to get done while we were in town with solid internet, and one more package to pick up that was yet to arrive, so after checking the weather to learn that we would probably have another good window for getting south of Dixon … Read more

Airship | Prince of Wales Island: Cholmondeley Sound and Kitkun Bay

We really enjoy finding spots we haven’t visited before that we could show to future guests or flotillas, so we make it a point to seek them out. For this trip over to Prince of Wales Island we planned to focus on Cholmondeley Sound. From the chart, it looked like our choices were Kitkun Bay, Dora Bay, East Arm, and West Arm. All looked intriguing, but we opted to start … Read more

Airship | Wrangell to Ketchikan: Anita Bay, Thoms Place, Meyers Chuck

After two days in Wrangell (picking up the grandkid, reprovisioning, etc.), we decided to check out a place we hadn’t been before — Anita Bay. We recently got a tip from a local fisherman that Anita Bay was great for halibut, so off we went! Anita Bay is south from Wrangell down Zimovia Strait, and the head of Anita Bay is just over 5 miles from the entrance! There were … Read more

Airship | Rocky Pass, Point Baker, Port Protection, and a Giant Lingcod

After leaving Red Bluff Bay we cruised over toward the north end of Rocky Pass and anchored in a spot called Stedman Bay. It’s shallow and quiet and we saw no other boats. We dinghied around a bit and saw deer, a large group of harbor seals hauled out on a nearby spit, and some otters. We had a nice dinner of fresh spot prawns dipped in garlic butter, a … Read more

Airship | South from Sitka (and sketchy superyachts)

We were originally aiming for Appleton Cove (just to make some miles, since we’ve been through Peril Strait a few times this summer) but Peril Strait was nice and settled so we went further and anchored behind Dead Tree Island. This is a very nice anchorage and with more time we would have dropped the dinghy and headed up river, but we got in kinda late and wanted to start … Read more

Airship | Circumnavigating Chichagof Island

We picked up Kevin’s brother Craig in Sitka and after changing our planned route probably five times prior to his arrival due to weather (we were hoping to get out on the outside of Chichagof or Baranof), we set out back through Peril Strait, buddy boating with our friend Ralph on Rubicon. The first day we left Sitka early and made the 47nm cruise to Appleton Cove. Airship and cruise … Read more