Written by Don and Patrick A lot has happened since we left Kodiak. After hugs and goodbyes to John and Karen, and welcoming Randy aboard, we pointed Starr toward Seward for a quick overnight run, arriving the next morning. Seward is one of those towns that makes an entrance. You come around the point and suddenly you’re cradled in a valley, snow covered mountains so beautiful that they send a chill down your back.. Pulling…

Arriving in Kodiak, Saint Paul Harbor looked like the obvious choice. Closer to town, closer to the marine stores, closer to everything. The harbormaster had other ideas. Every harbor of any size has one. The harbormaster is the person who runs the show at the dock level: assigning slips and moorings, collecting fees, managing the comings and goings of vessels, and generally keeping order in what can be a very busy and complicated piece of…

There are places you arrive at and places that arrive at you. Geographic Harbor, tucked into the southwest corner of Katmai National Park, is the second kind.     We pulled in early in the morning after an overnight passage from Castle Bay, and the world was completely still. The water off the Shelikof Strait had laid down overnight and stayed that way, and by the time we rounded into the harbor the surface was…

We got underway departing Port Wrangle at 0400 for the  97nm run and we will be in  Geographic Harbor tonight, We anchored in Port Wrangell last night and spent the evening as dinner guests aboard M/V Sea Lyon. Sea Lyon is a delta 70 that has spent a lot of time moored at SBMC under the care of Pacific Yacht Management who have their shop and offices there. Sea Lyon is now owned by Dan Fitzgerald,…

If you want the full story on why we came to Squaw Harbor, the Anders Olsen post covers it. What I want to talk about here is what we found when we got there. Squaw Harbor sits on the north shore of Baralof Bay on the east coast of Unga Island, about seven miles south of Sand Point in the Shumagin Islands. Unga is the largest of the Shumagins, a chain of about 20 islands…

Written by Patrick Connor Part of my family history has been finding weird boats all throughout my life. When someone looked at a boat and saw something ugly, we looked at it and saw something to be transformed. This was very much the case for the Anders Olsen. As a wooden boat builder myself and a general seaman, I tell everyone that wooden boats are magical and romantic beyond measure, but never ever ever should…

Written by Karen Lattanzi We all agreed, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been on a 3-day, 10-day, or 28-day passage; the excitement in the final approach is universal. Starr arrived in Dutch Harbor after riding with the wind and waves at her stern for the majority of the trip. After a quick tie-up to the bulkhead along the spit in the well-protected bay, just moments before midnight on May 28, we celebrated with a toast…

Written by John Lattanzi My experience with birds on our passage mirrors my experience with birds in general. That is the more you look, the more interesting they become. Their body  and wing shapes in harmony with their prey, Their flight pattern the perfect balance of caloric burn and food capture. Their coloration a disguise from either prey or predator, except for the priority of males breeding plumage. When I first started using the Merlin…

Written by Clay Hutchinson As we steamed our way across the Bering Sea towards Dutch Harbor, Unalaska Island we had a hard time determining the local time. During this time of year in the higher latitudes, as the calendar approaches the June 21 Summer Solstice, daylight can last almost the entire day. That messes with one’s internal clock making it challenging to adjust to the watch schedule and mealtimes. Each of us had our iPhones…

Written by Clay Hutchinson Yesterday we set our clocks back to match the local time at Dutch Harbor, so we now have the privilege to experience our second Wednesday, May 27th. A Mulligan. We are making good progress towards Dutch Harbor, and the weather forecast continues to show favorable conditions. The normal cruising speed for “Starr” is about 8 knots at 1450-1500 rpms, but we are currently running at 1600 rpms and making about 9…