Raw water strainer

[Tom Keevil]

Jim, you're certainly right about Alaska being a great cruising ground. If you are looking to marina hop, spending the days swimming in warm water on white sand beaches and working on your tan, it definitely is a lousy place to cruise. If you are interested in whales, grizzly bears, tidewater glaciers calving icebergs, native villages with totem poles, ice covered mountains rising straight out of the sea, fascinating small communities accessible only by boat or float plane, so much salmon and halibut that friendly local people give it to you for free, and thousands of anchorages, most of which you can have to yourself, then Alaska is a pretty decent spot.

On the other hand, it is very far away, and hard to reach, the weather can be terrible, there are countless unmarked rocks and very few navigation aids, the charts are often very small scale and inaccurate (follow your chart plotter at your own risk), VHF reception for weather or Coast Guard assistance is spotty, weather forecasts are not all that accurate, tidal range can be 25 feet, and tidal currents are impressive, you usually have to anchor in very deep water, and if you get into trouble you have to be prepared to get yourself out of trouble without any help. So don't everybody dash up here!

You are also right about the fascinating history that is so easy to follow here. In addition to Bligh, one of Cook's officers was George Vancouver. He returned a dozen years later and surveyed the coasts of Washington, British Columbia and Alaska, showing that the Northwest Passage did not exist hereabouts. He did such a good job that his charts were used for a century thereafter. Most of the names here were given by Vancouver, Cook or the Russians, and reading about these as we cruise along is always a source of interest and pleasure. It is especially interesting since most of these places are essentially unchanged, and what we see today is pretty much what they saw back in the 18th century. Anchoring alone in Nootka Sound in the cove where Captain Cook spent a month refurbishing HMS Resolution sent a shiver up my spine. It looked as if he could have left just yesterday.