We purchased Bluewater when she was in Portland, Oregon, 90+ miles up the Columbia River. During the spring of 2006 we sailed and motored downriver to Astoria. In mid-June 2006, we crossed the Columbia River Bar and headed for Neah Bay, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and on to Port Angeles, Washington

From Port Angeles, Washington, we crossed the Strait to the San Juan Islands. We traveled through the San Juan Islands to Canada and the Gulf Islands, on to Nanaimo, through Seymour Narrows, in to Johnstone Strait and up the Inside Passage towards Glacier Bay, Alaska.

For most crews, Glacier Bay is the farthest north they venture. After waiting two weeks in Elfin Cove for a weather window that would allow us to cross the Gulf of Alaska, we got one. Our four-day weather window slammed shut on the morning of the second day. We high tailed it for Yakutat and spent another 10 days waiting for our chance to make Prince William Sound and Valdez. We arrived in Valdez right under the wire, October 18, 2006. We are wintering in Valdez, skiing the mighty Chugach Mountains, and planning for spring, summer and early fall of 2007.

We plan to leave Valdez as soon as possible in the spring. We need to haul out the boat when the pad is ice free, hopefully in late April 2007. Then we will head out into the Sound and along the southern edge of the Kenai Peninsula to Seward, Homer and Kodiak.

We have high hopes of pressing on from Kodiak through Shelikof Strait to False Pass at the very tip of the Alaska Peninsula and the start of the Aleutian Islands. However far we make it, we will return to Valdez for a second winter.

If the gods are still smiling, we will re-cross the Gulf of Alaska back to Elfin Cove during the spring of 2008 and spend the summer heading south, then on to California and Mexico.

As with any adventure, the further out the planning, the hazier it gets and this plan, more than others, is subject to the whims of fate and wind, of desire and curiosity.

The maps below show our cruising grounds for 2007 (map on left) and our route for 2006 (map on right).

Click either map for a lager version.
Want to see a big version of the whole trip thus far and the plan for the summer? Click Here