Day 0 | 2024 Flotilla to Alaska | A Spectacular Northern Lights Show at Prevost Harbor

We’re headed north again for another adventure up the Inside Passage to Alaska! We met two boats from this year’s group in Prevost Harbor at Stuart Island, and had a nice meetup on Airship to discuss tomorrow into Canada, and the overall plan. This is going to be a really fun group!! We will meet up with our third boat in Ganges today (Mike and his brother Garry on a … Read more

Announcing the 2024 Slowboat Flotilla to Alaska

Inside Passage, San Juan Islands to SE Alaska Prevost Harbor to Juneau | May 10 to June 23 | Maximum 5 boats Glaciers. Icebergs. Whales. Bears. Cruising to Alaska is all about the incomparable nature right in front of your eyes. It’s about not just seeing the world, but experiencing it. This year we are again doing an extended six-week trip, exploring coastal British Columbia with an extended tour of … 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

Airship | Long Harbour on Saltspring Island

We left Hammond Bay around 11am and aimed south for Dodd Narrows to arrive near slack (12:25pm). About 40 minutes before slack we began hearing boats making sécurité calls announcing their transit through the very narrow Dodd Narrows. A couple southbound sailboats went through (current was pushing south until slack), and at that time a log barge made a call letting other vessels know they were a “too wide” log … Read more

Airship | Campbell River to Hammond Bay, and a Cautionary Tale

We had a very nice visit to Campbell River. We even went for dinner out with our friend Scott. (Yay, a night off of cooking!) We made an early dinner reservation for outside on the patio at the Harbor Grill (just at the top of the ramp from the marina). We’ve been eating so much seafood, and we love seafood, but tonight we went for turf over surf — filet … Read more

Airship | Johnstone Strait, Kanish Bay, Campbell River

We left Port McNeill and headed down Johnstone Strait with a bit of current helping us along, which was nice. By the time we were at Race Passage we were getting a push of about 4-5 knots. Wheeeee! Due to the full moon and king tides, there is SO MUCH debris in the water right now. Sometimes in light chop, the logs can be quite difficult to see. Other times, … Read more

Airship | Fury Cove and Secure Anchorage (not Cape Caution, yet)

We left our anchorage at Kisameet Bay late in the morning on Sunday (after watching the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix) and headed south for Fury Cove. We saw so many whales along the way, but weirdly, most of them were just floating at the surface, as they do when they’re sleeping. But it was after noon…and they were spread out over the whole route (not all together, not that … Read more