Into the Blue

When we let people know we were going to Alaska, people told us stories of catching halibut. "Oh yeah, you just hang a hook over the side and in the morning you'll have a halibut!", they said. A family member took us on a shopping spree at SeaMar to get all the right hooks, lines, lures, etc., for halibut fishing. Our neighbor at Shilshole gave us all his old halibut gear, because he is heading south and won't be needing it any more. We were READY. Every time we anchored,

What is it about our cetacean friends that transforms a couple of adult(ish) sailors into spastic children the instant they appear?? I've yet to sort it. In British Columbia and Alaska, we have seen humpback whales nearly every day. It's always a treat. They may be transiting, so we see only their backs, breaths, and tails, or they may be slapping their fins or tails, breaching, or eating. We are mesmerized by it all. At each sighting I fetch my camera and capture a dozen or

I often used to mock the sailboats with the fully enclosed cockpit / dodger. How could you feel the wind and experience the fresh ocean air? I even took the dodger completely off of my old boat and sailed that way for over a year. The Ardea came with full bimini top and clear vinyl windows that can be zipped on and off, which we have named “The Bubble”. Part way through our trip up the inside passage of British Columbia to Alaska, I changed my mind. We were motoring along in

We had just set our anchor deep in the south part of Thomas Bay. Beautiful! We chose a spot tucked into a bay with a gorgeous view of the Patterson Glacier. It was perfectly calm. I sat on deck and just listened. It was so quiet and peaceful. All I could hear was the noise of the river cascading into the bay far off in the distance. Then I could hear some sea lions, a moose bugling, and the occasional trill from a bald eagle. I just sat there and listened for a while. Then, a

Sailors are a curious bunch. We don't have room on our boats to keep the things we 'might need someday', but we are reluctant to put them in the trash, as we know for certain they are a truly valuable items that someone will surely want. There is almost always, in every marina, a free pile. Books, clothing, boat bits, and miscellaneous awesomeness. At Shilshole we called it “Our Favorite Boutique”, and regularly came away with fabulous additions to our wardrobe, great books o

There is a myth going around Southeast Alaska that ever since the sea otters became a protected species, they have been eating all the crab. This is mainly propagated by commercial crab fishermen. The otters have made a remarkable comeback from near extinction. But to me it looks like the commercial crab fisheries are more likely to have wiped out all of the formerly abundant dungeness crab population. Every inch of coastline that might have crab is dotted with crab pot buoys

In the very early days of our dating, Noj recommended two books to me. (All part of his 'plan of seduction' – quite clever, actually.) The first was a book about permaculture, and the second was a book entitled, Sailing the Farm. I was super excited by this, as it married two of my favorite activities: Sailing, and sustainably producing my own food. Brilliant stuff. So here we are, a few years later, voyaging the Salish Sea and beyond, and sorting out how to feed ourselves. P