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Art

Art

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Feb 9, 2011
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Tollycraft 34' Tri Cabin
Spring 2017... My wife and I plan to take a two to three week vacation voyage into Alaska's confines. We do not know Alaska. Would like to fly in and take this voyage on a relatively sane cruise-boat/very-small-ship. Sure do not want to be couped up on the 25th floor nor 2nd floor of a 5,000 tour-person ocean liner sky scraper.

I feel lots of TF members should have great knowledge regarding best (most interesting) places in Alaska to visit... as well as some of the best touring boats to do it in. :thumb:

Looking forward to suggestions! :D

Thanks,

Art
 
I haven't been to AK yet, but I have charted up around Anacortes two times, both private (bareboat charters). The most popular are probably Anacortes Yacht Charters and ABC Yacht Charters. Both offer a good selection of boats.


Don't forget those of us to stand and wait--we like to see LOTS of photos.
 
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Here is what you are looking for if you really want to get a feel of what it's like in Alaska:

bnycharters.com This is a 52 foot cruiser and the owner skippers the boat, with room for 4 guests. He has been doing this for many years and will know all the right spots to go. The quests will be helping with the meals. You will probably need to eat lot's of fish, crab, and shrimp, so hope you like fresh seafood.

northwestnavigation.com This is a old 65' wooden cruiser that the owners rebuilt and have chartered for the past several years. The owner is the skipper and his wife does all the homemade cooking on a wood stove. They have room for approx. 6 guests. There are several video's on this boat on youtube. Looks like it would be a great time.

Of course both these boats will go places none of the cruise ships can go.
Good luck.
 
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Last week visiting Alaska, it was around 30-degrees F in Anchorage and 0-degrees in Fairbanks (with ice flows in the rivers). So, when are you planning to visit?
 
Art, FWIW, (maybe not much with your preference), we did it, 10 nights, last May on a Norwegian ship from Vancouver, ending Seattle. We never felt crowded, there were good spots onboard with surprisingly few fellow pax(eg. the top deck forward lounge), we saw a lot at the numerous ports, and enjoyed excellent weather. I know it`s not for everyone, but it worked for us,especially the informality of Norwegian.
 
About every other year we do the summer SE Alaska cruise-ship thing. Done it about a half-dozen times, on Norwegian, Princess, and Holland America. Favor Princess now since they do round-trips from San Francisco so we avoid airline stress and expense. Scenery is fantastic.

 
Art, here is the one I was looking for.

 
Alaska Dream Cruises I believe is the best small ship company. They will take you to culture in the Native Villages, Glacier Bay and personalized adventures such as small boating or kayaking in remote Alaska. This is an Alaskan owned company with decades of local knowledge.
 
Send a private message to Arctic Traveler at this forum or google the name. He has a 49 DeFever and is not afraid to use it either.
 
WOW - What a great bunch of Posts/Replies for ways ta go... into confines of Alaska. Thanks to you all. Linda and I will review all mentions closely and research from names provided.


Again thanks! - Art
 
I haven't been there as much as some, but I have been from the beginning of the Inside passage around to Kodiak, all of the Aleutians, most of the islands in the Bering, Nome, all of Cook inlet, much of the Kenai peninsula, parts of Prince William sound and more bits and pieces....


I love Alaska and would go back every summer if I could. But I also feel like I have only scratched the surface of really seeing it all. For a place as big as it is....seeing Alaska is as big of a challenge as the state itself.


So for me, the first question is...what do I REALY want to do?


See a lot and go back and seriously visit favorites....see a little and really get to know that area or something I specifically wanted to do or see....


Tough questions...but they may be the ones you wish you answered before you go.
 
I never get tired of SE Alaska!

The small ships that take 20-50 or more passengers seem like a good way to go - great routes, good activities, not absurdly expensive. Traveling on one that takes only 4-10 passengers could be really nice. We see many of these cruisers along the same routes and in some of the same anchorages we are most fond of.
 
If you make it to Seward, please look me up.

Always love to share a beer with a TF'er.
 
I sold a Northern Marine trawler this past summer that is going into charter service out of Whittier. the company is Phillips Cruises and Tours. They do day trips to the Glaciers also and will have SOUND ENDEAVOR doing charters this summer. here is the Contact info for the new owner.
Contact Us

Toll Free 800-544-0529
Local 907-276-8023
info@26glaciers.com
 

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So you want to go to Alaska. Big subject. With just two to three weeks will make it tough. Chartering? Bring your boat? What are you interested in? Lots of stuff to consider. We took our first cruise on ASD last year. Thank a look at our blog. Crusty Chief and I are heading back that way summer 2017 to kill as many fish as possible......
 
What a great post! We're going next year on May... let's see how far we can go north in a month... Open to suggestion starting from south...
 
garrobito said:
What a great post! We're going next year on May... let's see how far we can go north in a month... Open to suggestion starting from south...
Click to expand...

Starting from where? What start date? Do you prefer anchoring, or marina? How fast do you travel? How long a day underway do you like?

Over many years we've found that traveling an average of only 30-40 nm per day, underway for 6-8 hours, often including some fishing and floating around gawking, is most enjoyable for us. This past summer, with a bigger boat (Nordic Tug 37, purchased only in May) we hoofed it a lot faster to meet up with guests who had planes already booked. We started May 29, made it from Anacortes to Sitka in only 16 days, traveling 968 nm - average 60nm/day, underway for an average of 9 hours. Slowed down a good bit after that.

It was fun, as it was quite the new experience for us (trailer boat cruisers for the last 25 years), but we didn't have much time to smell the roses. We spent only one day waiting for weather, prior to crossing the Queen (going around Cape Caution to the north coast of BC) - unusually good weather luck, in our experience.

Moving at a pace something like that could be fun if you really want to see how far you could get in only a month - maybe up to Ketchikan and back, or a bit further - depending on where you start, and how the weather co-operates.
 
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Something I've advised many people to consider is to carefully choose one place to fly into and go there. Don't even consider seeing more places. Spent some time there doing what there is to do and getting to know quite a number of Alaskan's. A full experience can be had in this way.

Most people make the mistake of trying to see all of Alaska or even all of SE. And the result is a high stress experience going away w a scrambled up mess of an impression of what we call Alaska.
 
Nomad Willy said:
Something I've advised many people to consider is to carefully choose one place to fly into and go there. Don't even consider seeing more places. Spent some time there doing what there is to do and getting to know quite a number of Alaskan's. A full experience can be had in this way.

Most people make the mistake of trying to see all of Alaska or even all of SE. And the result is a high stress experience going away w a scrambled up mess of an impression of what we call Alaska.
Click to expand...


100%:thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
Well....you could go one place and hate it....


If there are any preconceived notions of what you want to d...then there are ways to tailor the trip to it.


Anyplace can be a focused or whirlwind tour.


As long as you know going in it isn't any more stressful, less fun or less informative than the other..but it does help to make that conscious decision beforehand as I posted before.
 
I don't want to derail this thread, but does anyone who has been to Canada know if they have any restriction on the number of eggs you can bring into the country?
 
Then link over to this.

Food, Plant and Animal Inspections - Understanding Food, Plant and Animal Regulations

And the answer is 2 dozen eggs. And then they still give you someone else to contact for further information.

I don't know what others have encountered, but we listed everything we had, they saw the number of people, we didn't have anything that was absolutely forbidden, and they said we were fine. Had we gone to Canada before we cruised Alaska we might have had issues as we had over two months worth of meats aboard.
 
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Art

Consider the Nordic tug charter fleet out of Juneau. Do it yourself style and enjoy the heck out of things without the crowd. BTW, Jeff the owner of Artic Traveler is/was a small tour boat Captain.

As mentioned, Pacific Catalyst is a good choice. Great vessel and a very good tour guide, owner Bill Bailey is very capable.
 
Thanks for the egg info. I'm assuming that 2 dozen limit is per person. We crack the eggs, ladle them into zip lock bags and freeze them flat so they stack nicely. Then, the night before we want eggs for breakfast we take a bag out of the freezer and put it in the refrig. They thaw by morning.


Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
 
A friend of mine own a Defever 49 at Mosquito Creek Marina, Vancouver if memory not fail on me..
Plan is moving north at 9 knot... no push too much, go with the flow.. sometimes anchor, sometimes, spend time at a marina...
I do not know how far we can reach... (maybe we ended around vancouver island and never reach alaska..) but we're gonna tried it..
It's gonna be an open vacation month so I take note every place your think it's a good idea go... ;)
 

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