Seattle to Ketchikan in a 19 Ft. Boat

In 1998, George Tomlinson left the Seattle area for Ketchikan Alaska in a 19 foot GlasPly runabout, Nauti Buoy. 74 years old, he arrived in Alaska five days later. This article was originally published in Pacific Boat Traveller. George's daughter Sue is a good friend and shared this experience with me.

OB boats have been going to Alaska since the fifties. There was an annual article in the Alaska magazine "with the outboarders". Most of the time it was a group of 8-10 boats, mostly 16-18' and mostly older men w their wives. And outboards have been doing it ever since. I went from Juneau to Seattle on my own OB boat that I built up north in the late 70's. It was 28' but very light and minimalist powered by a 55hp 3cyl Johnson. Burned 3gph. Had a 45gal fixed tank that I needed to fill plus two 6 gal tanks for the longest run from Prince Rupert to Shearwater. A lot of early Ak bound outboarding was heavy into fuel management.

And a number of adventurist boaters row all the way up the coast. Murray (one of our own members) has traveled extensively along the coast in kayaks w his wife.

In the cool protected waters of the PNW small boats have been running the coast for a long time. I knew somebody who was contemplating rowing to Ak in a small wood boat and was around a campfire w several other outdoorsmen and was about to tell of his plans thinking he'd be the star of the evening when another man in the group started talking about doing it for the 8th time. It was a wind out of sails moment.

Good read, thanks.

Then there's this couple, who hiked/paddled over 4,000 miles from Seattle to the Aleutian's:

Sam, a member of this forum, went from Seattle to Alaska in a C-Dory 22 a few years ago. He wrote extensively about the trip. Hopefully, he can chime in with a link or two to his articles.

Thanks Ken E. Downloaded for emergency airplane reading.

A long distance rowing trip has been on my bucket list for years.

MurrayM said:

Then there's this couple, who hiked/paddled over 4,000 miles from Seattle to the Aleutian's:

Click to expand...

Now, that's impressive. Thanks Murray. You've done some big trips yourself......Kitimat to Pruth Bay isn't small potatoes in a kayak.