Advice needed! Sailing/motoring from Anchorage to Juneau

[Captain Bligh]

Hi, I may be buying 15 ton 40 ft sailboat boat in the Anchorage area. I will need to bring it down to WA over the spring and summer. I want to get to the inside passage as possible. Does anyone have experience with this trip that could offer advice? Also does any have any blogs about this trip, either north or south? I really want to know what i am in for. I dont have charts of the area, but google maps says its a 500 mile trip , most of it through the gulf of Alaska. Does the weather ever let up? If so for how long? I have heard the weather is unpredictable up there and can change in an instant.
What are my best options?
Thanks
Scott

[ksanders]

Here's a running account as it happened diring our last trip from Anacortes to Seward, AK.


Bayliner Owners Club - BOC Forum - Topic: Kevin and jamisons great alaskan adventure (1/9)

The Gulf of Alaska will be the only major stretch of open ocean. Here's how to do it.

Make your way to the edge of Prince William Sound, in the strait between hinchinbrook and Montague islands. Stay in Zykoff bay (west side) or garden cove (east side). Both places are good anchorages, but Zykoff bay has two really protected anchorages.

When you get your weather window head for Yakutat. Thats 211 NM.

In Yakutat you can fuel up, and there is a good harbor. A bit of advice, tie up at the fuel dock because the harbor is several road miles from town but the fuel dock is in town.

Next stop is Elfin cove 153NM. It has a nice protected dock but not much services. You can get fuel there though.

From there its an easy run to juneau, and then south through the inside passage.

Good luck

[Captain Bligh]

Kevin, thank you. Very thorough. See my pm in TF.

[Dhillen]

Originally Posted by Captain Bligh

Hi, I may be buying 15 ton 40 ft sailboat boat in the Anchorage area. I will need to bring it down to WA over the spring and summer. I want to get to the inside passage as possible. Does anyone have experience with this trip that could offer advice? Also does any have any blogs about this trip, either north or south? I really want to know what i am in for. I dont have charts of the area, but google maps says its a 500 mile trip , most of it through the gulf of Alaska. Does the weather ever let up? If so for how long? I have heard the weather is unpredictable up there and can change in an instant.
What are my best options?
Thanks
Scott

We spent the whole summer up in the area and wrote about it extensively on our blog. If you look there you might find answers to some of your questions. PM me if you have any more.

The Sea Is Salt

Cheers.

Dhillen

[pacifica]

I did the 500 mile crossing from Kodiak to Icy Strait (near Juneau) last July in my 36' sailboat. Straight across the G of A . Waited in Kodiak for reasonable forecast then motored nearly the entire distance in glassy calm for 4 days to Elfin Cove. A huge improvement on the gales of a month earlier and 500 miles farther west.

[Captain Bligh]

Originally Posted by Dhillen

We spent the whole summer up in the area and wrote about it extensively on our blog. If you look there you might find answers to some of your questions. PM me if you have any more.

The Sea Is Salt

Cheers.

Dhillen

Thanks for the info, I will definitely check out your blog!

[Captain Bligh]

Originally Posted by pacifica

I did the 500 mile crossing from Kodiak to Icy Strait (near Juneau) last July in my 36' sailboat. Straight across the G of A . Waited in Kodiak for reasonable forecast then motored nearly the entire distance in glassy calm for 4 days to Elfin Cove. A huge improvement on the gales of a month earlier and 500 miles farther west.

Well, that is certainly how I would like to do it, but I was hoping to come south sooner than July.

[pacifica]

Well, you would have shorter legs and exposure along the coast leaving from Anchorage; and the gribs and surface analyses and prognoses seemed pretty accurate when I was there.