The Strait of Georgia is the first “gate” on our way to Alaska. It’s only a few hours across, but if it’s windy it can be a miserable few hours. We look at a bunch of different forecasts before crossing any of the gates. Most of the time, the forecasts are pretty much in agreement. The trends are the same and predicted wind velocities are similar. For the Strait of … Read more
The beautiful weather continues! We awoke this morning to bright sunshine and our group was so excited to get going that we left Roche Harbor by 8:00 a.m. — an hour earlier than originally scheduled. All but one of us has Nexus (the trusted traveler program that lets us clear Canadian customs by phone most of the time), so one boat had to stop and clear customs at Pender Harbour … Read more
We’ve cruised Hood Canal in Airship before, and although it’s a long body of water with not many of what we’d call “destination anchorages”, there’s still quite a bit to see and do, especially when the weather is nice. We left Pleasant Harbor on Friday morning and cruised the 21nm or so down to the “Great Bend” and found space on the dock at the Hood Canal Marina (same ownership … Read more
Winter in the San Juan Islands is our favorite time for cruising up here, and this is why: This is Fossil Bay on Sucia Island, and there’s no one else here. No one on the dock. No one on the mooring balls. In the summer, this place is absolutely packed (so we hear–we’ve managed to be in Alaska every summer since we bought Airship). Today, the sun is shining, the … Read more
The first night in Cabo was a blur. We arrived late in the afternoon, had a celebratory drink with the Brown Eyed Girl crew, and headed to dinner. More celebratory drinks, then a cab ride to San Jose del Cabo for more celebrating. We stayed at Marina Puerto Los Cabos, a huge, modern facility a few miles outside San Jose del Cabo. The marina caters primarily to sportfishing boats and … Read more
The trip so far has been uneventful. That ended today. We departed Mag Bay in predawn darkness for the 185nm, 28 hour run to San Jose del Cabo. This is the most barren section of coast on the Baja Peninsula. No services, no anchorages, just bluffs and beaches and maybe a few villages here and there. The first ten hours were easy. A bit of fog as we exited Mag … Read more
The last week has been a flurry of activity and near constant movement. Officially we’ve spent nights in two Mexican ports—Ensenada and San Quintin—but we’ve yet to really see anything in Mexico. In Ensenada, we cleared customs and went to dinner at the marina, never venturing more than a few hundred yards from the boat. In San Quintin, we arrived at night and departed before dawn, never actually seeing the … Read more
We didn’t intend to run 67 hours, but that’s what happened. And it was great. Most people view overnight passages as an occasional, necessary evil. They can be exhausting. Running at night can be disorienting. Someone must stand watch at all times, watching the radar and other instruments and avoiding traffic. With just two of us on the boat, that means sleeping four hours at a time, then standing watch … Read more