You can tell Spring has arrived to the PNW. Days are longer, grass is growing and the rain is warmer. Everywhere you look people are starting on outdoor chores.
Our cruising plans begin with a departure the last week of April or the first week of May. We still have some projects on the “list” and their completion or postponement may affect the actual departure date.
In broad brush strokes, we’ll depart Seattle and head north steadily. Some stops along the way may be Victoria (we’ve never been there), Tod Inlet/Butchart Gardens (always lovely), and Campbell River (we’ve never transited through Seymour Narrows).
Our friends and last year cruising partners, the Nagles, already have their boat in Alaska (A Winter Passage: Seattle to Ketchikan), so we don’t need to spend much time in Ketchikan as we did last year while waiting to rendezvous with the Nagles. Now that Marcia’s appetite for fish has been whetted, she wants to spend more time fishing. Preliminarily, we think we’ll be working the area between Ketchikan and Wrangell looking for crab, halibut and salmon.
From Wrangell, we may try our hand at getting around Kupreanof Island via Rocky Pass on its west rather than Wrangell Narrows on the east. Once in Frederick Sound, we’ll probably head west and aim towards Sitka. We enjoyed that area immensely last year and may try using Sitka as a base for exploring the west coast of Baranof Island both north and south.
Other than arriving back to Puget Sound in mid/late September, we don’t have specific dates for departing Alaska. There are so many places to explore along the way, it is hard to make a bad choice.
