New Southeast Alaska Member

[lauren]

I had joined the group last winter as i was looking for a newer 36 Albin. Through the forum I found a 2005 Albin ET in Anacortes. We just brought it up the coast to Alaska and now have the "top dog" based in Craig, Alaska on Prince of Wales Island in deep southeast Alaska.

We run a multiple day charter business mostly fishing clients, but it is a great area of sightseeing as well. We added stainless rail, cleaning station, downriggers and pot puller to the large swim step on the back end. With the engines under the deck I did not want fishy stuff and saltwater getting into those areas so will focus fishing, crab and shrimp pots to the swim step.

I had been advised that the heat pump would not be effective in Alaska and that may be a factor in the dead of winter but it worked fine on the way up. We had a diesel heating system installed before we left Washington, but I suspect that 16K was not needed and just further clogged up what little open space there was below deck. lauren

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[DesertAlbin736]

Welcome aboard! Oh wow, that must have been an awesome passage up from Anacortes! More pictures of your boat & home port, please! The Express Trawler looks like a very suitable boat for Alaska.

We have some experience ourselves cruising San Juans, Gulf Islands, & Sunshine Coast out of Bellingham, but have only gone as far north as Pender Harbour and Princess Louisa Inlet with our A25. Other than that, our only experience with Alaska was a Princess cruise ship out of Seattle to Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway, and Tracy Arm fjord which was 10 years ago this year. For those who haven't been up through the Inside Passage, it is stunning scenery beyond belief.

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[lauren]

We did the trip in about five days. some pushing hard, some partial days. biggest headache is all of the wood in the water. must have zigged around a thousand logs. We were lucky on the the two spots of open water and cut inside when we could. Lost my anchor first night so then timed where could tie up or where a wimpy anchor was enough. In the off season have to be more alert to where fuel is. Nice without a zillion pleasure craft headed north. We passed one other summer tourist headed north. Otherwise docks empty, no waiting at customs stops, etc. lauren

[lauren]

Lots of waterfalls as tuck inside from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert.

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Fuel dock at Klemtu a bit tired and nowhere to tie up for the night, but a little store and diner top of the ramp. Most interesting place we stopped was Butedale. It was an old cannery or some such, left too long without caretaker and locals raided it hard. They are making an attempt to turn it into a lodge of some sort. Can dock there but it is a very tired dock. In the off season the caretaker is clearly missing human contact. We tried to give money to tie up but he wanted food instead. We ran pretty hard and did not stop anywhere to look around. If we stopped at all it was to wait out the tides rather than run the Colorado River. I could almost smell the prawns in a thousand miles of deep inlets along the way. That would be enough reason to slow down on another trip. lauren

[BrookeMarie]

Lauren, welcome from another newbie! I would love to take my boat up the inside passage. Look forward to hearing about your travels.

[DesertAlbin736]

Jim (BrookeMarie) says,

"I would love to take my boat up the inside passage."

Life is short! I say get that trailer fitted & do it! Sure, it's a 2,700+ mile road trip each way between Mobile, AL and Bellingham, WA, but if you went via Springfield & KC, MO, I-29 to Sioux Falls, then I-90 across S. Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, & the top of Idaho and Washington State between Spokane and Seattle and used your boat as a camper you could make a slight detour for a stop at Yellowstone Nat'l Park along the way. What an awesome road trip that would be!

Here's the deal: IF you have enough free time, it would take about a week to get to Bellingham if you could average about 400 miles a day, which would be about 8 hours driving each day averaging 50 MPH with stops, so 2 weeks on the road coming and going. If you had a tow vehicle that could get say 12 MPG pulling the boat that would be about $1,200 in gas round trip at $2.50 a gallon average. I say launch from Bellingham because a) it's closer to the Canadian border and the Gulf Islands, and b) more importantly it only costs $7 to launch and long term parking for truck & trailer is free for up to 60 days. Once on the water you can take your time & cruise for as long as you want or as time allows.

For comparison, during summer season the cheapest 7 night bareboat charter out of Bellingham for the smallest power boat they have, a Ranger 29 tug, is $3,300 a week, or $3,150 for a Hunter 34 sailboat if you have sailing experience. And 7 nights is really only 5 days, because the first day is getting the boat and loading provisions, and it's afternoon before you get underway, and the last day you have to have the boat back to the dock, fueled, unloaded, and cleaned up to turn in by 10AM.

If not this year, then why not next? We're seriously considering going back next year, and WillieC from Seattle will have his boat done & ready to cruise. There's a 3 boat Albin 25 flotilla right there. Bonus: the weather is pleasantly cool up there during summer, mostly clear weather, not hot & humid & no bugs.

You could be enjoying scenes like this:

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[Mark Deeser]

Sounds great, where do I sign up?

[WillieC]

I guess I just signed up! No waiting, no fuss, no muss! Desert Albin is in charge. We're in the middle so somebody can pick-up all the parts that fall off our boat. (Engine has been physically placed back in the boat, currently hovering over its intended location. Details to follow elsewhere.)

Y'all need to read The Curve of Time if you haven't. M. Wylie Blanchett.
In a gasoline powered vessel no less with 14 (est.) children on board. Amazing story.

Lauren, welcome aboard and good luck with all your 'new' boat issues and great success for your business. Will have to check the google for where Craig, AK is. Made it all the way to Hyder on motorcycle a few years ago. Now that is deep southeast AK.

OK, I'm back. (So nice of the interweb to let one multitask.) Craig is due west of Hyder, which is accessible by motorcycle or other multi-tired vehicle. It looks like from
Bellingham to Princess Louisa is about 1/4 the distance from Anacortes to Craig. Just eyeballing it. So 45 days times 4 is about six months. (A25 days and gph, ymmv.) Half a gallon per hour, let's see, carry the one...about 10,000 gallons of diesel. At $2.50/gal or $CDN183/L, that rounds off at about a quarter million. When do we leave!

[DesertAlbin736]

"We're in the middle so somebody can pick-up all the parts that fall off our boat."

Hey, it's an Albin! Parts are not supposed to fall off! Actually our cruise mates had some issues with the raw water cooled Yanmar 2GM20 engine in their O'Day 25 sailboat. Their raw water pump had failed while we were in Nanaimo. That's the external belt driven pump, and the shaft seal had failed & filled their bilge with sea water. The point of the story is that in the course of an earlier stop at Montague Harbour on Galiano Island we had met a nice Canadian couple from Quailcum Beach, a small town on Vancouver Island a few miles North of Nanaimo. They were sailing a MacGregor 26X. We exchanged contact info & met up with them again when we all got back to Nanaimo. They not only drove us and our friends around in their car looking for replacement parts for the Yanmar (in which the cheapest alternative was having the old pump rebuilt, at a cost of over $600CDN in parts & labor, equal to $460US), they also invited the four of us over to their house for a home cooked dinner since we had to lay over Nanaimo a few days waiting for parts to arrive. That's one of many reasons why we love it up there and can't say enough kind things about the Canadians we've met along the way.

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They also gave us a Cooke's Tour of the area, including a stop at the "goats on the roof" country market & restaurant in Coombs, BC near Nanaimo.

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[Mark Deeser]

The boats and the waters are great, buts it's the people we meet on them that really make it special. Sounds like a great time.

[whwells]

Welcome Lauren: It is nice to see former Sea Knoll and the fine work you have done for her. You will have many years of great fishing and sightseeing with the boat. Really happy to see you will be an active and participating member in the group. Bummer all that money went of the diesel heat but seems to me in your part of the world it will be well used. The Reverse AC has it's limit's in particular when you are not running. Hope to see you and the boat for a fish trip in the future.
Howard