Meandering to Juneau – June 7 to June 28

Meander seems to be the operative term to describe our cruising style this season. Similar to our previous leg out of Ketchikan, we first did a short excursion near Sitka then returned to stay a few more days.

South of Sitka for about 30 miles is a section of coast that has offshore islands that create a protected travel route with many good anchorages. From Sitka, we cruised to Kliuchevoi Bay, which is next to the very popular Goddard Hot Springs. This was our first visit here because we’ve been put off by the crowds that we expected to find here. Perhaps because it was still early in the cruising season, the hot springs were not crowded, and we managed to have one of the two USFS constructed bath house to ourselves on the two days we were in Kliuchevoi Bay.

From here we made a short jaunt to First Narrows Cove, nestled between three islands with a narrow entry channel. It was rocky and had no functional beach, so we then went to Seven Fathom Bay where the USFS has a recreational cabin. In front of the cabin was a grassy area above a shallow rocky beach on which we landed our dinghy. Drake thought the beach perfect, so we suspect we’ll be visiting again. Our last night before returning to Sitka was in Leesofskaia Bay, a short distance from Sitka.

The next morning, we docked back in Eliason Harbor of Sitka, coincidentally in the same  slip as we had five days earlier. While in Sitka we attended one of the evening concerts from the Sitka Music Festival, did lots of walks on the trails around the town, and picked up all the packages we were expecting.

On Friday, June 19, after a luxurious seven days in Sitka, we headed out. We had been communicating with Kathleen & John Douglas on Laysan (a sister ship to Alpenglow), and had agreed to rendezvous on Kuiu Island. We made an intermediate anchorage at Ell Cove on Baranof Island, before meeting up with Laysan. Also joining the rendezvous was Luck Dragon owned by Ed and Carlene (aka, Charlie). Luck Dragon is a “classic” Diesel Duck 462 that is a cousin ship to our sedan style Diesel Duck. We dropped our dinghy to shuttle folks between the vessels for our evening gatherings on Laysan. After two nights in the Shelter Bay area of Tebenkof Bay, we all went our separate ways.

Our next stop was a relatively short distance north to Rowan Bay. There is a USFS dock here but it isn’t advertised as a public dock. We went and checked it out with our dinghy hoping for convenient shore access for walking the roads. As best, I can determine, it is more likely a work float or designed for float planes. The USFS has an extensive road system on Kuiu Island and they may stage some of their support activities from here. There were several trucks parked at the top of the dock. We did a short walk and found what we believe were moose droppings.

We then crossed Chatham Strait to Gut Bay where we dropped our prawn pots before anchoring. The catch the next morning was skimpy so we did not reset but instead headed back across Chatham Strait to Saginaw Bay. John Douglas had mentioned a trail that led from the anchorage at its end to connect with the Kuiu Island road system. This was a “new to us” anchorage and perfectly fine but a long ways back. When I had talked to John about the anchorage, I neglected to ask which stream fork led up to the trail and, of course, when presented with a choice, chose the wrong fork. Something for another visit.

A long day from Rowan got us to Pavlof Harbor on Chichagof Island and a shorter one the next day to Whitestone Harbor. We were positioning to go into Juneau but with a windy forecast, rather the moving to Funter Bay about 12 miles closer to Juneau than Whitestone, we elected to stay two nights in Whitestone. A very early start on Sunday, June 28 had us in Juneau before 10 AM.

Leg 3 – 13 Travel Days, 385.5 NM, 66.7 Engine Hours

Meandering to Sitka – May 13 to June 3

In recent years we have set goals that get us north of Ketchikan quickly (e.g., Little Norway Festival in Petersburg or beating the start of the commercial prawning season). This year, absent such a goal we took a less scripted and meandering path.

First, since it had been a few years since we we’ve been around Revillagigedo Island  (this is the very large island on which Ketchikan is located). The circumnavigation of the island is about 125 miles (not counting diversions for anchoring) but since we don’t particularly enjoy the SE corner of the route, we traveled clockwise around the island as far as Walker Cove on the east channel of Behm Canal then turned around to retrace our route counterclockwise. Besides, Walker Cove, we used Yes Bay and Traitor Cove as intermediate stops in both directions. Traitor Cove was a new stop for us. It has a public dock which we were able to use on the return leg of the trip. After this 6-day jaunt we returned to the Bar Harbor docks of Ketchikan.

After two nights in Ketchikan, we started our northbound journey in earnest and traveled first to Frosty Bay, about 2/3’s of the way from Ketchikan to Wrangell. We’ve gone past Frosty Bay many times since it is only about 4 miles north of Santa Anna Inlet, an anchorage we’ve used often. There is a USFS cabin at the bay but we didn’t have time to check it out before leaving the next morning. We continued the next day to Berg Bay, which also has a USFS cabin. Here we did have time and we launched our dinghy, taking Drake to shore and playing ball with him on the grassy patch in front of the cabin.

From Berg Bay we traveled to Wrangell for the Memorial Day weekend. One of the attractions of going to a dock in a SE Alaska town are the walks we can do. Wrangell has sidewalks along most of their roads as well a few trails, so Drake is always anxious to get off the boat and start exploring the different scents. It being spring-time in SE Alaska, one of the scents are the blooming skunk cabbages.

Up to this point we had not done any prawn fishing. The commercial prawn season started on May 15 but it was now closed in most districts. We decided to try some of the areas in Fredrick Sound that were productive for us last year. We traveled first to Sanborn Canal in Port Houghton. The next day, we dropped our prawn pots on the way into Hobart Bay for the night. We were disappointed by the slim harvest of prawns but attributed some of the shortfall to the octopus that was in one of our pots when we pulled it up.

From here we traveled a little north to Windham Harbor to drop pots. The next day’s harvest was pretty good, but we had to work for it. Both this year and last year, we've been surprised by how strong the tidal current is here, and by its timing. We pull our pots by hand, and the current makes that harder: the boat drifts with the current, but the pot sits still on the bottom. So, as we haul the line in, it's dragging through moving water the whole way — like pulling a drogue. The stronger the current, the harder the pull. We thought we were pulling pretty close to slack (an hour after low) but the current was acting like nealy a one knot ebb current.

Even though it had only been a few days since we had been in Wrangell, Drake was getting antsy, so we headed to an anchorage with a nice play beach, Honey Dew Cove on Kuiu Island. Two nights here seemed to do the trick. To reward ourselves as well as satisfy Drake’s needs, we headed next to Warm Springs Bay on Baranof Island. We were able to get on the public dock which made accessing the trail to Baranof Lake and the hot baths convenient. Again, two nights seemed to do the trick.

An “oh-dark” start from Warm Springs Bay allowed us to get to the DeGroff Bay near Sitka in one day. The next morning, June 3, had us on the dock in Eliasen Harbor in Sitka completing this leg.

Leg 2 – 16 Travel Days, 569.4 NM, 93.5 Engine Hours

Sweet 16 – Bainbridge Island to Ketchikan – April 29 to May 11

We started our 2026 cruising season (our sixteenth trip) on Wednesday, April 29 with a relatively modest first day of cruising from Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island to the Port Townsend Boat Haven and a quick visit with the folks at Port Townsend Shipwrights Coop (PTSC).

During our regular maintenance haul out earlier in April, we had PTSC upgrade most of the electronics at our helm stations. Our multifunction displays (MFD’s) at both our upper and lower helms were the builder installed “classic” Raymarine E- series models E80 & E120. Our preference is to replace critical equipment before failure to avoid the disruption and possible extra cost of emergency repairs or replacement. We deemed the radar portion of the MFD’S role critical and decided to do the work now. The newly installed Garmin equipment was operating correctly except for the new Garmin AIS which was performing subpar. We stopped by Port Townsend to see whether a new AIS-VHF antenna would fix the issue. Sadly, it didn’t and our view of AIS targets remains less than we’d like.

While in Port Townsend we crossed paths with a “cousin” vessel, the classic Diesel Duck Shearwater owned by David Cohn. David is an avid and expert fisherman and spends much of his Alaska time in the Sitka area laying in loads of seafood for the winter. He had left from his home in the San Juan Islands a few days us before but returned to Port Townsend when he saw some erratic electrical monitoring equipment not working correctly. His problem was quickly fixed with a new connector.

After Port Townsend, we positioned in Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island in the San Juan Islands Archipelago. We made the short crossing the next day to Port Browning on North Pender Island. It is a Nexus Canadian Border station, and there is a grocery store only a half mile walk from the marina. We wanted to provision with the fresh produce that we weren’t able to take across the border. Port Browning Marina also has a huge grass field where Drake can play ball until total exhaustion (as indicated by his tongue hanging sideways out of his mouth). It being May 1, there was a May Day Celebration being held on the lawn during our visit.

From here we started a steady march northward. On May 2, we traveled 74 miles to Tribune Bay on Hornby Island. On May 3, we traveled a more modest 64 miles to Otter Cove on Discovery Passage but transited the often-problematic Seymour Narrows north of Campbell River. May 4 was 95 miles to Port Alexander on Nigel Island, positioned for crossing Cape Caution. A 93-mile day on May 5 got us around Cape Caution, during which we deployed our stabilizers in the water, and up to Strom Cove on Seaforth Channel, north of Bella Bella. Next day’s 68 miles put us in Khutze Inlet along Graham Reach and catching us back up with David Cohn’s Shearwater. With a forecast for deteriorating weather and the memory of being stuck the previous year in Klewnuggit Inlet on Grenville Channel for four nights, we traveled 89 miles on May 7 to an overnight in Kelp Passage on Porcher Island followed by a short 20 mile day to get us to Cow Bay Marina in Prince Rupert.

After two nights in Prince Rupert (and lots of play for Drake despite periodic rain), the weather improved enough for us to travel on May 10 the 33 miles to Brundage Inlet on Dundas Island, where we again shared the anchorage with Shearwater. The next day, May 11, with an additional 57 miles we arrived in Bar Harbor Marina in Ketchikan.

Leg 1 – 13 Days, 682.2 NM, 104.8 Engine Hours

Monitoring Battery Activity - Part 1 - The Discharge Cycle

We installed our Lithium Ferro Phosphate (LFP) battery bank in August 2021 (Out with the Old, in with the New).  It consists of 10 Battleborn GC2 12V-100 Ah batteries arranged as two serial banks of five paralleled batteries giving us 500 Ah at 24V.  We also installed a Victron Cerbo to help control and monitor our Victron equipment (chargers and battery monitor).  I subsequently installed a Raspberry Pi single board computer running Signal K to record and display data being generated on board (Boat Data).

I’ve now been collecting the data for three years and I haven’t been doing much more than displaying real time data while on board.  As a winter project, I’ve tried to organize and analyze it more carefully.

While at the dock and connected to shorepower, the batteries are not doing very much. The AC needs of the boat (e.g., water heater, toaster oven) are supplied directly from the shore (mediated through the isolation transformer and inverter/charger). The DC needs (e,g, refrigerator, lights) are handled by batteries working with the DC charger half of the inverter/charger.  While actively cruising and underway, the alternator driven by the propulsion engine provides the current for DC loads while the AC loads are taken care of by inverter part of the inverter/charger powered through the alternator.

It is only while at anchor (or occasionally at a dock), with no shore power connection, that the batteries must do work and discharge some of their stored power.  In the three cruising seasons for which I have data (2023, 2024 and 2025), I identified 247 depletions of significance.  I ignored the small discharges that occur when transitioning from shore power to engine power when leaving the dock, and the reverse situation, engine power to shore power, when arriving at a dock. I also ignored short duration discharges associated with events where the engine is off and you aren’t on shore power (e.g., visiting a fuel dock, waiting in a temporary anchorage for currents to subside).

The first chart shows the distribution by duration of the 247 discharge cycles.  Our cruising style is one of motion and we only spend multiple nights at anchor in one spot a dozen or so times a year.  When we do, we run our generator daily to recharge the battery banks. A lot of the 20+ hour discharge cycles are probably associated with multiple nights at one site. Being a slow boat, cruising around 6-1/2 to 7 knots, we tend to put in long days to cover the same distance that faster boats do. The short duration discharge cycles often represent a 7 PM arrival at a destination followed by a 5 AM departure the next morning.

The next chart shows depth of discharge (as measured in amp-hours, Ah) distribution for those same 247 discharge cycles. The same comments as above about deeper discharges being associated with multiple nights at anchor and smaller discharges representing longer days underway apply to the distribution.

The last chart shows the power consumed by hour of the day. There are certain items on board that once they are turned on are rarely turned off.  The big examples are refrigerators and freezers (we have two of each) and all our monitoring equipment (e.g., the NMEA2000 bus). 

The data show that we consume 8-9 amps as a baseline. Because we are primarily operating on DC, while at anchor, we tend to turn on the AC inverter part of the Inverter/Charger only when we need it (e.g., using the Starlink antenna). Turning on the inverter tends to increase our usage by an additional 4 amps (we rarely use the inverter to run a large AC load like a toaster oven or electric kettle).

The last major DC load is the Kabola furnace.  On cold mornings, we often heat the boat up with the Kabola.  It will easily use 8 amps as the pumps and blowers kick on but after things warm up, the load usually drops to around 4 amps. There is a temperature dependence to our usage.  Cold weather will result in longer and more frequent operation of the Kabola while hot weather causes higher duty cycles in our refrigerators and freezers. The highest usage is in the early evening when we would have AC power on in order to watch streaming TV via the Starlink antenna and set the Kabola thermostat up to keep the boat comfortable.

When comparing our amp or amp-hour numbers, remember that we are operating at 24v DC.  The equivalent numbers for a 12v DC system would be double.

 

Monitoring Battery Activity - Part 2 - The Charge Cycle

The “yang” to the discharge cycle’s “yin”, is the charge cycle. We have three ways to restore the batteries after they have been depleted.

Shore Power – We have a Victron Multiplus 24 3000/70 inverter/charger that when provided AC power can recharge the battery.  While our boat is wired to accept 240V-50A, for simplicity, we only connect to shore power via 120V-30A

Alternator – We have two alternators on our Lugger 1066T diesel engine, one for the start battery and the other for the house bank battery. The house bank alternator, a Leece-Neville 4740JB (24V-200A), is regulated by a Balmar MC-624.

Generator – We have a Northern Lights OM773LW2 – 9KW generator. This provides AC power to the Multiplus Inverter/Charger but, in addition, we have a Victron Skylla-I 24/100 charger attached to the output of the generator.

The “State of Charge” (aka SoC) is often the metric used to determine the status of the battery.  It runs from 1 (or 100%), when the battery is “full” to 0 (or 0%), when there is no power available.  For our battery bank, each 1% change in the SoC is about 5 Ah.  With a 24V battery bank, that 5Ah of energy would power the base load of our boat (8-9 A) for about 35 minutes.

For this analysis, I wanted to see the charging characteristics all the way until battery full and so I eliminated cycles that didn’t go to at least 99% SoC.  I wasn’t quite as concerned about the starting level of the discharge, though.  I ended up with 219 charge cycles that went to completion, 7 for shore power, 27 for generator and 185 for engine.  The small number of shore power charging is not surprising since upon arriving at a dock, in most circumstances, would already be full.

The chart below shows the aggregate charging profile for each method of charging. While the monitoring system collects data continuously, it only preserves the data for the long term once every six minutes (one-tenth of an hour), taking an average of the values since that last time increment.  To allow the comparison of charge cycles with different durations and different battery depletions, I used the charge cycle’s end point as a reference.  At any given time point, I averaged SoC for those charge cycles that extended to it. 

A characteristic of LFP batteries is that they accept high levels of charging current until nearly complete.  My observation is that the charging is nearly constant, limited by what the charging source can provide, until about 98% SoC.  At that point, the current acceptance rate decreases rapidly.  At 99% SoC, the battery monitor, a Victron BMV-712 in our case, may say it is “close enough” and report a 100% SoC. 

On the chart, I’ve had Excel compute the linear regression line for each category with the Y-intercept being set to a 100% SoC. The X- coefficient in the equation represents the slope of the charging curve. An average hourly charge rate can be computed from the coefficient by multiplying it first by 500 (the number of Ah in our full battery bank) and then again by 60 (the number of minutes in an hour).  For shore power that calculation suggests a 48 amps per hour charge rate. For the engine it is 96 amps per hour and for the generator 129 amps per hour.  These charge rates are lower than the actual output of charging source because they are net of the charging source’s output and whatever DC loads the boat’s system requires.

 

Monitoring Battery Activity – Part 3 – The Aging Process

Batteries are such a solid (often made primarily of lead, after all), quiet and passive object, that their “wearing out” seems hard to believe. Underneath their cases of rubber and plastic, however, is a cauldron of electro-chemical processes that can turn motors, power lights, heat water and make life more comfortable. After doing that, providing the batteries with appropriate electricity power can reverse those electro-chemical processes so that the cycle can be repeated.

Our current lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) batteries are the third set of batteries we’ve used. The previous two battery banks were both made up of AGM lead acid batteries. For AGM batteries, typical lifespan is 500-1,000 cycles and four to eight years. Our two AGM battery banks lasted about six years. One of the claims of LFP batteries is greater longevity. Our Battleborn Batteries are rated at 3,000 to 5,000 discharge cycles so we are hoping they will last the rest of our ownership of Alpenglow. Ignoring the small discharge cycles accompanying the transition between shore power and engine alternator, we have had 261 discharge cycles of more than 50 Ah in years 2023 through 2025. Assuming our first full year, 2022, with the new batteries was similar, I estimate that we’ve had fewer than 400 significant discharge cycles so far.

While batteries can fail suddenly, normal “wear and tear” usually shows up as reduced capacity. Our LFP battery bank is rated at 500 amp-hours (Ah), but we have never intentionally consumed that much energy (more about an unintentional discharge later) before recharging. Searching the Internet for methods to determine a batteries capacity usually give solutions that are impractical for “working” batteries because they require they usually require the such the isolation of some or all the batteries from loads for a period of time followed by monitoring the battery while under a constant modest load.

The method I am using to assess the battery bank is monitoring the bank’s voltage over the course of many discharge cycles. While each discharge cycle will be of different duration, depth of discharge, and rate of discharge, I am hoping the aggregation of data will reveal patterns and trends.

In my dataset, for the cruising seasons 2023, 2024 and 2025, I identified 201 discharge cycles that started from a nearly full battery (<2 Ah of discharge) and resulted in a discharge of more than 50 Ah. I had 37,758 measurements of the battery during those discharge cycles. Each measurement included the battery bank’s voltage, state of charge, amp-hours discharged and rate of discharge. These measurements were the average of instantaneous values during the previous six minutes (five minutes in the case of the 2023 cruise year). The discharge cycle ended when the next charge cycle began. In most cases, the charge cycle was the main engine starting, but it could have been the generator starting or even the shore power breaker being switched on if I was purposely cycling the battery bank while at a dock.

Besides the aggregated data from three cruising seasons, I also have one case of the total discharge of the battery bank. This unfortunate and unintentional “test” occurred over about 4-1/2 days during the New Year’s holiday of 2023/2024. The shorepower to the boat was turned off and the battery bank depleted until the battery management system (BMS) incorporated in the individual batteries shut things down to prevent any further depletion. The boat sat for over 3 weeks with dead batteries until I returned to the boat near the end of January for my regular mid-winter visit. I restored shore power and the inverter-charger then recharged the battery. In a call to the battery manufacturer’s technical support, they told us that the accidental complete depletion ought not have any long-term impact on the battery.

Below is the graph of the house bank battery voltage versus the amp-hours discharged for that unfortunate incident. We had most things shut down so the typical discharge was only a little over 4 amps. The discharge curve is relatively flat, although it steepened at about 150 Ah discharged until about 180 Ah whereupon it flattened again, creating a slight “S” shape. A few bumps in the curve are when the diesel furnace came on to heat the boat (we keep the thermostats at 45°) and increased the discharge rate, The discharge curve steepened again at about 350 Ah discharged, then plummeted after about 470 Ah. The BMS turned off the batteries at 509 Ah after 4-1/2 days.

The next graph shows the aggregated discharge curves for the 201 discharge cycles in the cruising seasons of 2023, 2024, and 2025. The scales are different because the range of voltages and amp-hours is more constrained. I have also included the relevant portion of the 2023 total battery discharge as a reference curve since its low, steady discharge rate is closer to what a bench test might be.

Two things strike me about the curves. First, the steepening of the discharge curve (the “S” bend) at about 150 Ah is consistent across all discharge cycles and not an artifact of a particular cycle (e.g., the discharge rate increased because of a device being turned on). It must be inherent in the battery, either something to do with the BMS or the batteries construction (e.g., as the discharge continues additional/different internal portions of the battery are called into action). The second observation is that as the battery is aging, the discharge curve is lowering (i.e., the battery voltage is less for the same level of amp-hours discharged). In the flatter portions of the curve, we are only dealing with 10 millivolts (mV) or less. In the steeper portions of the “S” bend, it is much easier to see because it is closer to a 50 mV difference between the 2025 curve and the 2023 curve. The aggregate data at higher amp-hour discharge is noiser because I have fewer discharges going that deep and therefore the varying loads (e.g., furnace, inverter, Starlink) that come on or drop off can swing the voltage.

We are still very happy with the LFP battery bank we installed in 2021 and have no regrets. They make cruising more pleasant in not having to worry about managing loads or charging schedules. Compared to our previous AGM batteries they charge dramatically faster and reduce the time we must run the generator when we are spending multiple days at anchor. As to their longevity, from our previous experience with AGM batteries, I believe I would be noticing far more reduction in capacity in the AGM batteries at this point, four cruising seasons, than I’ve detected in the LFP batteries.

All of the measurements I’ve used in the analysis, battery voltage, state of charge, amp-hours discharged and rate discharge were obtained from our battery monitor, a Victron BMV-712 installed in 2021 as part of the LFP battery installation. The BMV-712 directly measures the battery voltage. The current going into or out of the battery bank is computed by the BMV-712 via measuring the tiny voltage drop across a 500A shunt (a known resistance) and applying Ohm’s Law. The BMV-712 computes the other values from tracking the current flows over time. At the time of installation, the BMV-712 was configured with the appropriate values for our battery bank.

2025 Annual Wrap Up

Our 2025 cruising season bore a remarkable similarity to 2024, the same number of cruising days (122), similar number of engine hours (530 in 2024 versus 520 in 2025) and miles traveled (3,091 in 2024 versus 3,099 in 2025.  We did leave a bit later (May 4 in 2024 versus May 16 in 2025) and anchor out a bit more (73 days in 2024 versus 78 days in 2025).

One thing we tried to do was visit (or at least anchor) in different spots.  A new destination for us was Ford’s Terror off of Endicott Arm.  But, we also managed to use different stops while traversing mostly the same routes.  Overall, we recorded 13 new sites that we hadn’t used in past years. We may not visit them every year but we now have 384 different places in which we have either anchored, tied to a buoy or tied to a dock.  It makes planning routes and stops a lot easier with a long list of choices to draw on.

	Year	# of Days	At Anchor	At a Dock	On a Buoy	Distance Traveled	Engine Hours	Gen. Hours	Time Idling
	2010	129	57	66	5	3,221	517.1	40.4
	2011	115	81	33		3,465	577.4	31.3
	2013	151	99	50	1	3,667	630.0	53.3
	2014	141	86	48	6	4,052	720.8	34.8	48.5
	2015	104	67	31	5	3,580	629.2	28.7	42.4
	2016	141	99	39	2	3,979	700.0	51.9	68.6
	2017	140	91	46	2	3,817	656.5	62.2	51.1
	2018	112	71	40		3,170	528.6	33.9	38.2
	2019	118	82	35		3,816	649.5	16.3	56.6
	2020	63	42	12	6	2,527	399.7	32.8	11.5
	2021	110	81	26	2	3,317	554.0	66.0	27.5
	2022	139	88	47	3	3,584	613.6	19.5	42.9
	2023	139	84	54		3,024	510.4	36.0	33.7
	2024	122	73	48		3,091	529.8	24.8	26.9
	2025	122	78	43		3,099	520.2	33.3	29.3
		1,846	1,179	618	32	51,409	8736.8	565.2	477.2

As a footnote to the table above, if you add up the nightly stops (at anchor, at a dock or on a buoy), the total, 1,829, is 17 short of the total number of days, 1,846. The difference is the 15 days at the end of the trip when I don’t count the night we return to our homeport and two days in 2020 during Covid when we did overnight passages and did not stop.

The “Time Idling” is the total of the estimated hours during a day spent trolling for salmon, servicing prawn pots, or sightseeing (e.g., whale activity or glacier viewing).  I make these estimates to give me a better idea of my true cruising speed.

Below is a map of our stops in the 2025 cruising season. Clicking on one of the “dropped pins” will pull up some information about the stop. At the top right of the map is an icon which will open a separate window that may be easier to navigate.

NOTE: – The map was updated in November 2025 to include the tracks of our cruise.  Color changes are merely to help differentiate one day’s travel from another and denote nothing special with the exception of “green” for the first day of travel and “red” for the last day. As these tracks are our actual route and not our intended route, you may notice deviations from a straight path to accommodate other vessel traffic, sea conditions, temporary stops in order time a narrows, or fishing.

January 1, 2026 Update – I was intrigued by another blog that had animated their route and tracked down a service that would do something I thought was, at least, amusing.  It is a 4-minute video of our 2025 track accompanied by music (Music by Audionautix.com). It can be a bit disorienting.  Pausing at times may be useful to locate where on the map the video is showing.  If I am able to improve the experience through further refinements or tweaks, I’ll do so.

The map below shows all of the places we have stopped overnight during all our cruises through 2025. It is similar in style to our yearly cruise map except that when the marker for a particular spot is selected, the data for the spot is the total number of times we’ve stayed and in which years. 

As a word of caution, the location of the mark shown on the map is an “average” of ALL the stops and may not actually represent the location of ANY one stop. For destinations that are popular, we may have dropped the anchor at many different places and the average spot isn’t the best or even a safe spot to anchor.

Eating our Way South - Port McNeill to Bainbridge Island

Port McNeill continues to be a great place to transition from the relatively quiet North Coast of British Columbia and the very busy South Coast.  In recent years, several new eateries (e.g., Devils' Bath Brewing, Lata's Kitchen) have added to its attraction. It is fitting to consider Port McNeill as the start to the "eating our way south" voyage. 

An early start Monday, August 25 had us fighting ebb current in the western end of Johnstone Strait.  By staying close to the south shore (Vancouver Island side) we reduced its impact on us.  That early start, though, put us at Race Passage about the time of the turn to flood current.  From then on, the current would be in our favor and boost our speed.  In fact, we were going to reach Seymour Narrows north of Campbell River too early.  We pulled off at Otter Cove, just south of Chatham Point to wait for the current to slacken.  It being late afternoon, lots of other boats, both pleasure and commercial were also adjusting their speeds in order to reach Seymour Narrows during the window of safe transit.  We ended up sliding in behind one large fish processing boat and ahead of another.  After the narrows, we headed towards the nearby Gowlland Harbour for the night.

The next day, we again started early as we were hoping to get into the Gulf Islands. Our speed and the sea conditions were good and we able to transit Dodd Narrows, SE of Nanaimo, that evening.  After covering 95 miles in 13.6 hours, we anchored in North Cove on Thetis Island for the night.
  
It was a comparatively short hop (16 miles) the next day to Montague Harbour on Galliano Island.  While there were many (>50) boats here, the anchorage can easily hold them.  The dock at the nearby provincial park gives access to a pleasant trail and large lawn for us to play ball with Drake.  The marina in the harbor has a store offering ice cream and a restaurant (The Crane and Robin) serving food and adult beverages. We spent two nights anchored in Montague.

The Gulf Islands are compact so we traveled an even shorter distance (10.4 miles) to  Russell Island part of the Gulf Islands National Park.  In contrast to Montague Harbour, the anchoring area is compact and the bottom not particularly good (very rocky). It does have a dinghy dock and a loop trail that goes around the island.  Several nice beaches dot the north side of the island and Drake got to go wading in one of them.

The next day, August 30, we headed to Lyall Harbour on Saturna Island.  We took the "long way", 15.3 miles, around the bottom of Pender Island so that our batteries would be fully recharged. We were anchored a 1/4 mile or so south of the Saturna Island public dock which offers free dinghy access.  The BC Ferry Terminal for Saturna Island is here as well.  The incoming ferries throw a wake which bobble boats at anchor but, fortunately for the anchored boats, there are only 3 or 4 ferries a day.  During our 2 days anchored in Lyall Harbour, we ate once at the Saturna Lighthouse Pub, located next to the ferry dock, and had ice cream twice from the take-out in the same building as the pub.

On September 1, Labor Day, we traveled the 5 miles over to Port Browning Marina on North Pender Island. Coincidentally, two other boats, BarbEric (Barb and Eric) and Suzy Q (Suzy and Bob), from our yacht club also came into the marina.  All six of us dined one evening at the Port Browning Pub.  While at the marina, Marcia & I twice got some treats from the nearby Vanilla Leaf Bakery. Drake enjoyed his time here because of the large lawn and a non-muddy low-tide beach for play.

After two nights, on September 3 we crossed the border back into the USA. Our first stop was at the Deer Harbor Marina on Orcas Island. Here, our culinary desires were satisfied by Mathews Smokehouse and Island Pie.  For our decadent treats we relied on Lopez Island Ice Cream served up at the marina's store.  Each evening of our three night stay, we took a walk south from the marina to a viewpoint from which we watched the setting sun over Deer Harbor and the many islands of the archipelago.

From here, we headed to Garrison Bay on San Juan Island.  We stopped briefly at Roche Harbor to pick up some fresh produce and indulge in ice cream before anchoring for the night.  English Camp has an excellent dinghy dock and a nice trail system.  We'll often go to shore three times a day for walks and ball play.  One of our walks took us over to the Westcott Bay Shellfish Company for lunch at their shoreside restaurant.

To hit favorable currents, on the afternoon of September 9, we headed through Speiden Channel across the north side of San Juan Island and then up President Channel along the east shore of Orcas Island.  Our destination was Echo Bay on Sucia Island.  Echo Bay has no dinghy dock so we used our kayaks to go to shore.  The excellent trails on Sucia Island allow most of the major bays on Sucia to be explored on foot.

After two nights in Echo Bay, we headed towards Anacortes, our final stop before returning to Bainbridge Island.  In the Spring we had arranged to meet Peg and Roy, friends from our climbing days with the Mountaineers club, at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes. Roy and Peg take trips from their home in Portland in their RV.  Cap Sante Marina recently added an RV park next to the marina so we, in our respective traveling homes, were within walking distance of each other.  We invited another climbing friend, Craig, to join us for the visit.  We made a pilgrimage to the summit of Mt Erie, an Anacortes City Park, where we had participated, taught and led a variety of Mountaineer field trips more than forty years earlier.

For the final day of our trip, September 14, we traveled the "inside" route through the Swinomish Channel, past La Conner, down Saratoga Passage joining Puget Sound south of Whidbey Island.  We arrived at the Queen City Yacht Club Bainbridge Island dock shortly after 5 pm.

Leg Statistics - 21 Days, 360 Miles, 57.7 Engine Hours