Banner_DSC_0357

Latest Osprey news

Petersburg to Juneau: creatures abound

June 29, 2019

ALASKA’S FAUNA WERE ON FULL DISPLAY as the Osprey made her way to Juneau from Wrangell. Brown bears, seals, eagles and ice animals practically posed as we went by, a photographer’s dream. We stocked up in Petersburg, a scenic, orderly fishing town proud of its founders’ Norwegian and Native heritage. Sally Dwyer, a longtime civic…

Read More

Wrangell and the boat next door

June 21, 2019

BEHIND US ON THE WRANGELL DOCK this afternoon was the 26-foot hand troller Mij. Her owner, 29-year-old Brittaney Schunzel was replacing a damaged rub rail. Trollers pull long fishing lines behind them, attached to “troll poles”—outriggers—extending from either side of the boat. Power trollers, which pay more for their licenses, get to put out four…

Read More

Misty Fiords passage

June 18, 2019

  BILL AND I LEFT KETCHIKAN Saturday, June 15, heading counterclockwise in a 3-foot chop around big Revillagigedo Island, into Behm Canal and Misty Fiords National Monument. Our first night was at Winstanley Anchorage, where getting the hook set was complicated by a full moon bringing a nearly 20-foot tidal range. Anchoring has been a…

Read More

Crew change in Ketchikan

June 14, 2019

I’M SLEEPING ASHORE TONIGHT in a room my brother Bill rented at the Inn at Creek Street, in Ketchikan. Sam Farmer and I reached This Southeast Alaska city at 8 this morning, and Bill flew in from New York later in the day. Sam flies out tomorrow, and Bill and I head for Misty Fiords…

Read More

Kumealon Bay to Prince Rupert

June 11, 2019

MAN, DID IT RAIN LAST NIGHT. We were anchored in Kumealon Bay, after a slow slog up Grenville Channel from Hartley Bay, and the downpour sounded like someone was pouring gravel on Osprey’s roof. The recaulking work I did on my roof rails earlier this spring proved effective, however, and we had a dry, comfortable…

Read More

Three knots for sailors

June 11, 2019

Sam Farmer demonstrates three essential knots for mariners:    

Read More

Dead in the water at Hartley Bay

June 9, 2019

  [contact-form][contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Website” type=”url” /][contact-field label=”Message” type=”textarea” /][/contact-form] THERE WAS A TACO PARTY at the Hartley Bay dock this afternoon, where a half-dozen boaters are waiting for gas. The 2019 Waggoner Cruising guide alleges fuel is sold weekends at this neat little First Nations village on Douglas…

Read More

Desolation Sound to Alert Bay

June 5, 2019

IT WAS 88 NAUTICAL MILES from Squirrel Cove, in Desolation Sound, up windy Johnston Strait, to Alert Bay. On the way to the First Nations fishing town, we passed three large salmon net pens, owned by Norwegian aquaculture companies. Aboriginal people have been fishing these waters for hundreds of years, and people in Alert Bay…

Read More

Night in Nanaimo

June 2, 2019

      THIS IS LIKELY TO BE THE LAST night I’ll have an Internet connection for a while—and a good thing it is, because the wireless vultures have descended on me in force. Great trip today from Blakely Island up to Nanaimo, where we gassed up. Then we moored in Mark Bay, on Newcastle…

Read More

Rough crossing to the San Juans

June 2, 2019

    SAM AND I LEFT PORT TOWNSEND at 7:30 this morning, and as soon as we got around Point Wilson, we were in nasty four- and five-foot seas blowing down the Strait of San Juan de Fuca from the Pacific. I was navigating without my reading glasses, and as we approached Partridge Point, on…

Read More
Click map for Osprey's proposed route around Vancouver Island

Tweets from Osprey

Due to recent changes, Twitter's plugin currently isn't working.