Day 7 | 2024 Flotilla to Alaska | Blunden Harbour to Allison Harbour

We left Blunden Harbour this morning around 7:30am after deciding that conditions looked good enough to scoot up to Allison Harbour, 18nm further toward Cape Caution. The forecast for Cape Caution on Saturday is still looking good, so getting two hours or so closer today will help us out tomorrow! Conditions as we left Blunden Harbour were very nice…calm on Queen Charlotte Strait with a little bit of swell under … Read more

Day 6 | 2024 Flotilla to Alaska | Mound Island to Blunden Harbour

We left our anchorage at Mound Island just after first light this morning, around 5:30am. Conditions were calm, and according to weather information from reporting stations in and around Queen Charlotte Strait, things weren’t bad out there early but the forecast promised some ever-increasing wind in the afternoon today…so we opted to make our miles early. The group voted to cruise up to the Blunden Harbour/Allison Harbour to stage for … Read more

Day 5 | 2024 Flotilla to Alaska | Shoal Bay to Mound Island

Environment Canada’s forecast for Johnstone Strait today was a gale warning, with expected winds 20-30kts this afternoon. But Windy showed conditions that looked much more friendly. Johnstone is not an area where we typically can rely on Windy conditions, due to the variety of terrain and other mysterious things — this is when actual reported conditions are best when you can get them. Fanny Island showed 15-18kts for our whole … Read more

Day 4 | 2024 Flotilla to Alaska | Kanish Bay to Shoal Bay

The weather is very much not cooperating with our original plan for this week, so we’re making changes on the fly. Today, we were up early for a short 16nm cruise from Kanish Bay to Shoal Bay, at the top of East Thurlow Island. Shoal Bay is a great stop, with expansive views up Phillips Arm when it’s clear, and the charming Shoal Bay Cottage grounds to explore on shore. … Read more

Day 3 | 2024 Flotilla to Alaska | Tribune Bay to Kanish Bay

Today was another long day — from Tribune Bay north to Kanish Bay (58nm). The only tricky part was that we needed to time our departure from Tribune Bay to we would arrive 6.5 hours later for slack at Seymour Narrows, which today was 3:46pm. We had a little current with us today, increasing as we approached Cape Mudge and Campbell River, and we transited the narrows about 15 minutes … Read more

Day 2 | 2024 Flotilla to Alaska | Ganges to Tribune Bay

We departed Ganges Marina this morning around 9:30am for today’s (long) cruise up to Tribune Bay (68nm). Another gorgeous weather day! Love the shot Missie (from Selene Melissa Lynn) got of this creative use of umbrella-as-sail: And also this shot of Airship with a float plane taking off in front: We were aiming to arrive at Dodd Narrows 15-30 minutes before the 1:33pm slack, but we arrived a bit later … Read more

Day 1 | 2024 Flotilla to Alaska | Prevost Harbor to Ganges BC

Nice and easy 15nm cruise from Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island to Ganges Harbour on Saltspring Island. Everyone was pretty happy this morning after that amazing show of lights last night. The forecast for tonight is also good, so maybe we’ll be up late again tonight! The weather has been beautiful! We spent the day exploring town, provisioning with fresh produce (for the next 8-10 days or so) and relaxing … Read more

Airship | And Just Like That, We’re Home!

We got an email from the current owners of the Nordic Tug 24 Snowdrop (previously known as Airship), telling us (1) that they saw (current) Airship in Long Harbour on their evening walk, then (2) that they looked at the blog and learned that we’d already found Snowdrop! They invited us to come by in the morning to see our previous boat and meet in person, so we accepted! We’d … Read more