Okay, I know that the economy is hurting and the state doesn’t have a lot of extra money lying around, but what’s up with letting our ferries look this shabby?  We snapped this picture of the Hyak yesterday at Friday Harbor. Just look at the rust covering the sides. It’s embarrassing.  Washington state ferries are one of the iconic [...]

I rolled out of my bunk, looked at the low, dark clouds outside, and then checked the weather forecast again. I had gone to sleep the previous night thinking of the strong wind warning the Canadian weather office had issued for the greater San Juans and Gulf Islands area.  Now they were calling for gale-force [...]

We were getting tired. The wind was blowing more than 20 knots out of the southeast, right in line with our intended destination. The white-capped seas were square and steep. We crashed into oncoming waves every few seconds. The boat was heeled over, and each carelessly stowed item seemed to make itself known with a [...]

Something that goes hand-in-hand with cruising is traveling to get back from where you are cruising at. Whether it’s half-way around the world or just a few hundred miles up the coast, if you have a slow boat and commitments back home, you’re going to be taking some third-party transportation at some point. Depending on [...]

I didn’t know exactly what to expect as we rounded the point and entered Snug Cove. But after two days in the bustle of Vancouver’s Coal Harbour, we were looking for someplace quiet and relaxing.   The cruising guides agreed that this was a must stop for us on our quick tour of Howe Sound. But [...]

Sitting in the cockpit the other day, looking across Coal Harbour at the glittering Vancouver skyline, all glass and sharp angles, the city I’d grown up knowing seemed at once familiar and foreign. Arriving by boat, of course, provides a much different perspective on a place known previously only by land. Neither Marty nor I [...]

One of the sweetest early small motorboats in Seattle was the smart, 40-foot double-ender Zina. She was built in 1908 by James W. Hall at Eagle Harbor for Judge George Donworth, who served as Western District justice from 1909 to 1912. Designed by the firm of Lee & Brinton, Zina’s low freeboard and narrow beam [...]