For the last several winters I’ve kept the boat in Anacortes, just an hour from the San Juan Islands. The winter boating was superb, with a dozen or more State Parks within a few hours cruise. More often than not, I was the only visitor. This winter, I’m based at Elliott Bay Marina in Seattle. And while it’s not close to deserted islands, I’m thoroughly enjoying winter cruising on Puget … Read more
After our stop at Mitlenatch Island yesterday, we continued on to Melanie Cove, inside of Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park. There are three areas to anchor in Desolation Sound Marine Park: Prideaux Haven, Melanie Cove, and Laura Cove. There are three areas to anchor in Desolation Sound Marine Park: Prideaux Haven, Melanie Cove, and Laura Cove. There were 4 or 5 boats in Prideaux Haven, and 5 boats in Melanie Cove when we … Read more
We left beautiful Klag Bay on Thursday morning (August 4), backtracking out Smooth Channel a little ways to see if we could locate the island where Radioville lived. Bill Pierre in Rose’s Bar in Pelican told us to look for a red shack, and in the Evergreen book Sam had, we managed to find reference to Radioville with a line from the description box to an island (lower left)… The Douglass guide, … Read more
We left Pelican on Tuesday morning. Lisianski Inlet was gray and drizzly and foggy. This fish boat was just in front of us out of the harbor: The trip out to Lisianski Strait and on to the outside of Chichagof Island was mellow and the weather gradually improved as we continued further west. Hey look! It’s the Gulf of Alaska! The wind was 10-12 knots with 3-4 foot swells, so not a … Read more
After our Reid Glacier on-foot excursion (and brunch), we cruised around the corner to check out Lamplugh Glacier and then into Johns Hopkins Inlet. We took Airship, and Sam and Anna left Safe Harbour anchored in Reid Inlet and instead went in Sam’s dinghy. That way we’d have Airship as a base and could trade off passengers in the dinghy (able to go closer and be more nimble among the icebergs). The … Read more
On Friday morning we dinghied over to Reid Glacier and walked around for an hour or so, exploring the ice and rocks and waterfalls. It’s difficult to explain just how cool this was, so I’m going to post a ton of photos instead of words. Sam and Anna in the fast dinghy: Arriving on shore: Tiny dots, bottom center of photo are Sam and Anna: Taking turns standing on … Read more
We checked in on Wednesday afternoon (July 27) at Bartlett Cove just in time to make the 2pm orientation. Not much room at the dock (well, mostly due to the inconsiderate spaces left between other docked boats) so we rafted Airship onto Safe Harbour and hustled up to the Vis (code for Visitor’s Center). The park rangers showed us a film about the park and its rules in a tiny hot … Read more
Our steam train returned to Skagway on Monday around noon, and we headed for Haines (again) because Haines is great! But at the last minute we decided to stop and anchor in Taiyasanka Harbor. We still want to go back to Haines, but thought we should try a new place. Taiyasanka Harbor was pretty and we had a nice view of Ferebee Glacier from our anchorage in one direction…. …and several gorgeous mountain ranges in … Read more