Every day has been an adventure! Yesterday we drove into John Hopkins Inlet, past glaciers and through bergy bits. Anchored at Reid Inlet, today we walked around (and briefly on) Reid Glacier. Tomorrow we'll drive up Tarr Inlet (no sailing wind here) to see the glaciers at the end of that long arm.

We entered Glacier Bay yesterday, anchoring at South Fingers Cove last night and Blue Mouse Cove today. So far the mountains have been mostly shrouded in clouds, but even glimpses through the mists have been captivating. Otters abound, and porpoises and whales have been feeding in the cove. We are the only vessel in this area, and it feels magical!

Anchored at Inian Cove on Inian Island. Given the prevailing wind direction we were surprised to be getting wind inside the cove; the hills are funneling gusts. That plus no sun means it feels cold, but it sure is beautiful! We've also been treated to the sight of many otters and sea lions.

Sitka and a side trip by plane to Denali were terrific; now we're headed north to Glacier Bay. Rather than taking the inside route motoring through narrows, we chose the ocean side and rode a southerly wind up the Gulf before tucking into picturesque Elfin Cove. Built on the steep rocky sides of a small cove, this charming little community uses boardwalks and boats to get between dwellings.

We?ll be in Sitka for at least another 10 days, getting a marine survey completed and taking a short side trip to Denali National Park. I?ll resume position reports once we start to move again.

Arrived in Sitka! Overall a good 23 day passage. It?s cool and damp (summer here feels like winter in the San Juans), but the eagles and rocky islets feel just right.

After a lull in the wee hours this morning, a favorable wind shift is allowing us to sail the final miles directly to Sitka. Since it is light so late, if it weren't for the cloud cover we might even be able to see land today! We've been sighted ourselves; we were buzzed by a plane this morning.

Fortunately when the low reached us last night, we did indeed only catch the upper edge of it (sometimes strategies actually work). Winds in the mid 20's for about 12 hours, with comparable seas, were quite manageable. Conditions steadily improved since morning. If the wind angle was more favorable we could make landfall tomorrow, but the wind has shifted to the NE, exactly where we need to head. Even with some long tacks, we're encouraged to think we can arrive by Tuesday.

The breeze picked up this morning and the sea was relatively calm, so we had a great sailing day. The clouds even parted for a while this morning and we had our first glimpse of the sky in 2 weeks. Didn't last long, but it sure was nice!

There are times to be content with sailing slowly, but this is not one of them. Another deep low is approaching so we are motorsailing, hoping when it arrives we'll be near the outside of its NE quadrant rather than taking a direct hit. An added advantage is that the engine heat is warming up the cabin; what a relief! We were delighted to pass by some floating bull kelp. It didn't just mean we are getting closer to land, it looked like home.

Yesterday's dramatic barometer increase did indeed foretell an improvement in the weather. Today's winds and seas are much more favorable; all three sails are flying and we're enjoying a fine sail. With no waves running into the cockpit and a thin enough cloud cover for some solar to finally get through, we were able to spend some nice time outside for a change.

Yesterday's dramatic barometer increase did indeed foretell an improvement in the weather. Today's winds and seas are much more favorable; all three sails are flying and we're enjoying a fine sail. With no waves running into the cockpit and a thin enough cloud cover for some solar to finally get through, we were able to spend some nice time outside for a change.

"Same song, third verse; a little bit colder and a little bit worse." The galley window sprang a leak yesterday and was letting in a pint of water every time we got hit by a large wave, which was very often. When we slowed down, Art was able to go out and caulk it heavily; it's ugly but so far is keeping water outside. So we're back up to speed, which means waves are constantly smashing into the boat but we are making good progress.

Similar conditions to yesterday, but we decided we needed to head more upwind so we wouldn't get too far east too soon. By mid afternoon when wind and seas increased that made for very aggressive sailing, so we rolled in the inner foresail and are sailing on 3rd reefed main alone. Now we're only making about 3k but at least we are maintaining course and not bashing nearly as much. Our cabin heater stopped working. Since the problem is apparently in the control unit, it's not something we can fix until we get to Alaska. We're cold all the time now, which is going to make the last part of this passage much more uncomfortable.

Having a rough ride. We need to be heading more north but any further upwind would be brutal. It would be more comfortable to fall off the wind more, but if we head that direction we'll have to crawl back north eventually, so we might as well do it now. The not so happy medium is taking wind off the aft quarter, with lots of rolling and waves crashing into and over the boat.(Much too loud to sleep!) The good news is our Hydrovane is steering the boat better than we could, so we just huddle under blankets in the cabin and pop our heads out regularly for safety checks.

By heaving to rather than run with the system, we were in more favorable wind within 6 hours; the price paid of fewer miles toward our destination was worth it. We've been traveling nicely today (though the gribs show a deeper low right on the heels of this one; oh joy). It's Day 9 of cloud cover, but the rain stopped so we enjoyed being in the cockpit again. A milestone: 1000 miles to go!

We're in the midst of a low that a previous forecast showed passing over by this evening. Unfortunately we're having trouble with SSB transmission and haven't been able to receive a current forecast, so once the winds got over 35k (10k more than predicted), we decided to heave to for a few hours. Ideally drifting this direction will get us out of the worst of it sooner.

This report is from Saturday 6 June USA (in case post gets delayed).

The wind behaved as predicted so we are indeed still upwind but on a better course (and not even bashing much). It's gotten quite cold already for us tropical wimps, so the thought of another 1000 miles north makes us shudder! We've added layers of clothes and blankets, and turned the heater on for a bit this morning. This is Day 7 of cloud cover (good thing we're not navigating by sextant), but even without sunshine the enclosed cockpit is a reasonably good solarium during the day. We've passed the half-way point and will have a celebratory meal tonight.

Addendum: This report is from Friday 5 June USA. We're having trouble with SSB transmission so it may not have been posted.

The wind behaved as predicted so we are indeed still upwind but on a better course (and not even bashing much). It's gotten quite cold already for us tropical wimps, so the thought of another 1000 miles north makes us shudder! We've added layers of clothes and blankets, and turned the heater on for a bit this morning. This is Day 7 of cloud cover (good thing we're not navigating by sextant), but even without sunshine the enclosed cockpit is a reasonably good solarium during the day. We've passed the half-way point and will have a celebratory meal tonight.

The wind behaved as predicted so we are indeed still upwind but on a better course (and not even bashing much). It's gotten quite cold already for us tropical wimps, so the thought of another 1000 miles north makes us shudder! We've added layers of clothes and blankets, and turned the heater on for a bit this morning. This is Day 7 of cloud cover (good thing we're not navigating by sextant), but even without sunshine the enclosed cockpit is a reasonably good solarium during the day. We've passed the half-way point and will have a celebratory meal tonight.

The wind behaved as predicted so we are indeed still upwind but on a better course (and not even bashing much). It's gotten quite cold already for us tropical wimps, so the thought of another 1000 miles north makes us shudder! We've added layers of clothes and blankets, and turned the heater on for a bit this morning. This is Day 7 of cloud cover (good thing we're not navigating by sextant), but even without sunshine the enclosed cockpit is a reasonably good solarium during the day. We've passed the half-way point and will have a celebratory meal tonight.

The wind behaved as predicted so we are indeed still upwind but on a better course (and not even bashing much). It's gotten quite cold already for us tropical wimps, so the thought of another 1000 miles north makes us shudder! We've added layers of clothes and blankets, and turned the heater on for a bit this morning. This is Day 7 of cloud cover (good thing we're not navigating by sextant), but even without sunshine the enclosed cockpit is a reasonably good solarium during the day. We've passed the half-way point and will have a celebratory meal tonight.

We finally got into some wind, though distance made good to our destination has not improved because we're bashing upwind and off our desired course. However, it's not worse than we expected, and the wind is predicted to clock tonight and tomorrow. IF it does, we'll still be bashing but we'll be on a much more favorable course. We've been visited by dolphins twice, once with a spectacular show of leaping and playing!

In spite of the light wind we've been able to keep sailing at an acceptable pace. That said, being off course and having to jibe downwind the last couple of days means our distance made good has been disappointing. Gribs are forecasting a wind shift and increase tomorrow, so we're staying optimistic as we float along in light fog...

The previous wind shift took us off our desired course, but at least we can still have the sails up. And another plus: we came across a glass ball! An incredible stroke of luck, and in the calm air we were able to snag it easily. No fish on our trolling line, but we caught a treasure.

Sailing very slowly can be called ghosting, but last night we were truly a ghost ship: creeping along silently in fog. We are far enough north to need jackets and sweats on night watch, but not far enough to be past the large area of high pressure (= light wind). Probably the best way to look at it is that every day we're not getting slammed is a good day.

Update to the noon position: wind turned lighter and more southerly. We did a gentle jibe and are now sailing at 2.5k on a course of 40T.

So far this has been a surprisingly slow trip. Wind got over 20k yesterday, but today we are back in light airs that are forecast to be in our area for at least a few days. At least we are able to glide across the sea over long low swells, so we can't complain.

A good day. We have plenty of wind and are now a fourth of the distance toward our destination.

Fuel is a concern on a passage of this distance, but when the wind died last night we decided to motor. We needed the engine on to run the watermaker (=refill the empty tank), plus there was good wind predicted to the north and we didn't want to miss it. Mission accomplished: tank is nearly full and we've caught an ideal west wind, moving well in exactly the direction we want to go.

In the Excitement Of The Day Contest, 2nd runner up goes to the freighter that came within a mile of us (sure were glad we had the AIS). 1st runner up was watching a green glow (not quite a green flash) on the horizon at sunrise. The winner: realizing a faulty valve in the watermaker had caused the contents of our port water tank to empty into the sea! Fortunately Art found a workaround so we can gradually refill it.

When our speed dropped below 2k last night and we couldn't keep the sails from slatting, we ended up having to motor. Thankfully the wind picked up this morning and we are having another lovely sail under trade wind skies. The stars overhead and the bioluminescence in the surrounding water have been gorgeous at night, and today we were visited by a very large seabird that we suspect was a northern albatross.

At twilight yesterday 4 boobies played with the wind around our sails until dark, then 2 of them rode on the bow pulpit until dawn. We had a good run overnight, but the wind died today and we are ghosting in the pacific Pacific.

A lovely start to our passage! We were delighted to see the Southern Cross just above the horizon last night, a final farewell to the tropics. Now we're moving along nicely in a light breeze.

We left Honolulu, planning to anchor on the west side of Oahu for a few days then head north to Alaska but have had to backtrack. Our AIS stopped receiving/transmitting our GPS information, which we felt was a dealbreaker for an offshore passage. Now we're on a mooring buoy in Keehi Lagoon, waiting for replacement parts to arrive.

We are back at Ala Wai in Honolulu, picking up & installing autopilot parts and doing final provisioning for our passage to Alaska. We're still planning on departing towards the end of May.

A pleasant overnight sail (interrupted by a 30k thunderstorm at 0500) brought us to Kaneohe Bay on Oahu. It's a very protected location and we're enjoying not rolling in the anchorage. Working on projects will be easier here (currently protecting & insulating heat ducts, and varnishing), and we plan to stay at least a week.

We made overnight stops at Big Beach (near Molokini) and east of Lahaina; both of those anchorages were only viable due to very benign conditions. Now we're at Honolua Bay, a pretty spot with lots of surfers riding large waves at the nearby point. The waves are a bit uncomfortable in the bay but the wind is predicted to shift soon, and we plan to stay here for at least a few days.

After a nice sail to Maui that included spotting some whale spouts, we are anchored at La Perouse Bay. We'd prefer an anchorage that's smaller and less exposed, but there aren't many options in this area. So far we're the only sailboat out and about (so keeping the recommended social distance from other people is absolutely no problem!).

Since Hawaii state marinas limit transient stays and it's too early to leave for Alaska, we left Honolulu to do some anchoring around the neighboring islands. We've been on the SW coast of Lanai for a few days, enjoying complete solitude in a rocky cove and a chance to continue working on projects at a more relaxed rate. (Due to coronavirus restrictions, Waikiki is now a ghost town. At least cruisers have experience being isolated for long periods of time in limited space!)