Maiden Voyage on our 40' NSC

[yhc]

Just got home Thursday night after completing ~1000 mile maiden voyage through the Inside Passage.

We started from Tacoma, WA then sailed through Port Townsend, San Juan Islands, Nanaimo after checking in w/ Canadian customs in Bedwell Harbor, Cambell River, Port Hardy, Kakushidish Cove near Shearwaters, Bishop Bay. We then stopped over in Ketchikan after checking in w/ the US customs, Petersburg then Juneau, AK.

Gale force storms held us back in Cambell River harbor for a couple of days. Our original plan was to sail further from Juneau through the Gulf of Alaska to Whittier but the weather forecast called for a few fronts of gale force winds through this weekend and early part of next week. Rather than sitting out for the weather in Juneau for a few days, we have decided to leave the boat in one of the marinas in Juneau then fly back home. We will have to watch for a weather window to fly back down to Juneau to bring Reel Friendship back to our home port in Whittier, AK.

Other than the weather the trip was essentially trouble free and our 40' NSC, "Reel Friendship", handled the water very well. We had waters as smooth as glass to 4~6 ft chops to 8~10 ft swells. All system is a "go" and we are quite pleased with how she performed.

yhc

[tomcat]

That is super news!! Too bad you couldn't make the entire trip....but that just means another few days on the water at another time! Glad to hear "Reel Friendship" handle well. I have found that ours is extremely "Captain Friendly"!! Very responsive to the commands. Thanks for the update and let us know when you get her home.

Tom

[yhc]

We finally had stars align just right and had a good weather window over the weekend. Glenn, the co-owner, had moved the boat from Juneau to Yakutat the week prior but due to the weather window closing up on him he could not bring it across Gulf of Alaska.

He and I flew down to Yakutat last Friday after work and shoved off from the dock around 6:30 pm. After ~330 miles and 40 hrs later we made across the Gulf from Yakutat to Whittier. The first segment, 280 miles from Yakutat to Montague Island was a grueling, non-stop 28 hrs of driving. Glenn and I tag teamed driving every 3-5 hrs. Luckily we only had about 3 hrs of absolute darkness which helped. We anchored down late Saturday in a cove near Montague Island and rested for a few hours until we made the last lag of the trip to Whittier yesterday.

I am posting a few pics from the trip. Enjoy.

Regards,

yhc

[tomcat]

Nice pics! Glad to hear the journey is over and all went well with the last leg of the trip. I hope you have some great times on Reel Friendship. We certainly are enjoying ours!

Tom

[joe.baar]

Nice photos and a great story. Beautiful boat, too. Summer in Alaska must be an amazing time, but I could never do the winters. Take care,

[yhc]

It is indeed nice to have the boat in our home port finally...but the journey is just beginning for us on Reel Friendship! Just got back from a few days in Prince William Sound w/ my family. It sure is beautiful out there.

Like anything else, Joe, one gets used to the weather in the Greatland...even winters.

Regards,

yhc