Latest Osprey news
Misty Fiords passage
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 MoreCrew change in Ketchikan
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 MoreKumealon Bay to Prince Rupert
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 MoreThree knots for sailors
Sam Farmer demonstrates three essential knots for mariners:
Read MoreDead in the water at Hartley Bay
[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 MoreDesolation Sound to Alert Bay
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 MoreNight in Nanaimo
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 MoreRough crossing to the San Juans
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 MoreThanks Harvey
HARVEY HOCHSTETTER DROVE his 22-foot C-Dory Sleepy C down to meet us, from Sequim, on the first day of our trip, Friday—and escorted us all the way back up to Mystery Bay, on Marrowstone Island. We hung out there on the state park dock before Sam and I headed over to Port Townsend, where we…
Read MoreWe’re off!
We’ll be leaving Kenmore Harbor in about a half-hour, bound today for Point Hudson Marina, in Port Townsend. Today’s Puget Sound marine forecast calls for “variable wind to 10 knots, becoming south in the afternoon. Wind waves 1 ft or less. Patchy fog in the morning.” Yesterday afternoon, we launched Osprey at North Lake…
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