During my military service in the U. S. Army from 1964 to 1966, I was stationed at Ft. Lawton (now Seattle's Discovery Park).  I would have bought some kind of a vessel during those years had it not been my belief that to do so would have somehow guaranteed I would receive military orders the next day sending me to Viet Nam. Instead, I was able to explore Washington State and lower British Columbia by foot, by car, and with a canoe I had brought with me from St. Louis.

Returning to Seattle with Joann in 1981 and towing an 18’ runabout behind our Ryder rental van, Joann and I searched for the best method through which we could share my love of the wilderness.   The choices we considered were a sea plane (I had a pilot’s license), a sailing vessel, or a power boat.  After a very short deliberation, Joann expressed her preference for the comfort that a power boat provides in all weather conditions.

Within three months of our arrival, we had purchased a pre-owned 38’ single engine tri-cabin trawler and had begun our explorations.  Over the years and accumulating over 100,000 miles of Pacific Northwest cruising, we have owned other vessels of 50’, 85’ & 76’, and today operate our ’70 Inside Passage.

Although we have explored the waters of British Columbia and Southeast, South central, and Southwestern Alaska each year since 1984, it wasn’t until 2001 with the availability of digital photography, that we began to e-mail copies of our cruise journal each week to family, friends, and former cruise guests.

In reviewing these journals in the preparation of this website, we can see the evolution not only in our methods of layout, but also in the substance of our writing as well in the quality of our photography as digital imaging has rapidly evolved. 

We have been frequently asked the process by which our cruise journals are written.  We try to create a new journal each week during the summer’s voyage and the process begins about two or three days before the next publication date.  After reviewing the past week’s activities, Joann prepares the first draft, which Carl then adds to and edits extensively.  After that there are several more exchanges as we tie down the basic Word document. 

The next step is inserting photos into the draft journal, which are selected from among those taken by all onboard.  In some journals, a majority of photos are provided by those guests who are active photographers while in other journals we provide all of them.  Over the years we have become more aware of the value of the photos to our readers and their prominence has increased.  We try to limit them to no more than two per page.

At some point, our guests are invited to add to, critique, edit, and help polish the journal as it moves toward its final content.  Some guests choose to be actively involved and discussions on words, sentences and paragraphs can become quite extensive.  On one leg of a past cruise, our guests consisted of a self-described “editing maven” plus three English majors including one who had spent over 30 years as a professional journalist.  With that expertise onboard, we published a much higher quality document than usual.

The final step includes several more close re-reads to find grammatical errors and typos (of which we invariably miss at least one) before the document is printed as a .pdf for final distribution. 

A few days later, the process starts over again.

Our thanks to Mike Goggins, an IT Professional of the highest order and commitment, who has handled the technical details in the preparation of this website, and assisted in keeping the computerized electronics functioning through the annual equipment upgrades.  Without Mike’s assistance we would not have been able to share our experiences with others through this web page.

Of extreme importance has been Doug Janes who has kept our various vessels in top operating condition.  Whatever the problem may be, Doug has figured out the solutions.  Whether consulting by satellite phone from an anchorage in a remote Alaskan location or onboard from the depth of one of the bilges, Doug has always been there for us.  If it were not for him, it would not have been possible for us to maintain our unblemished record over all these years of never having to layover a night because of mechanical or electronic problems.

Finally, we thank Nano Patton, who provides our administrative support.  She provides us with daily news reports, arranges delivery of mail and needed parts and supplies, and keeps watch on the home front so that we can enjoy the wilderness.

What follows is unusual in that I have extracted an article from the writings of Jennifer and James Hamilton, who themselves quote another boat owner, John Marshall, neither of whom we have had the pleasure of meeting. 

Although you are getting the description in quotes below third hand, it nevertheless does what I consider to be a perfect job of explaining what has drawn us back each year to cruise these magnificent and mostly pristine waters.  In the article below, the author describes backpacking and mountain climbing in the Rockies.  For me, it was camping as a teenager followed by fourteen adult summers of canoeing over 2,000 miles through the wilderness of northern Canada including a paddle to James Bay and a 500 mile voyage from the north end of Lake Winnipeg to the historical Hudson Bay Company post at York Factory near the mouth of the Hayes River on Hudson Bay. 

Carl