What is beyond Bowen Island ?

Story; SJ24 Vancouver to Alaska

DATELINE: Wednesday, August 21,12:25 am

WA to Alaska roundtrip/ SJ24 is For Sale

I Just returned from a three month trip on my San Juan 24 from Bellingham, Washington to Alaska and back - the trip of a lifetime. A friend and I took our time exploring the amazing wilderness areas of northern British Columbia and SE Alaska, and were very lucky wind-wise - we sailed almost the whole way. It was a common occurance to wake up, pull the main up,pull up anchor and unfurl the genny, sail right from anchorage, no motor, SAIL 40 miles or so, and drop the hook; a few times we even anchored under sail, with out the motor. Nothing better than to travel for nearly a week (through territory people warned us was often windless) by sail, the needle on the tank just barely under "F." SJ 24s have so much more storage than many comparably-sized boats I've seen, and she still performed well laden down with 26 gallons of gas, 25 gallons of water, 3 months worth of food, clothes, 600 miles worth of charts, etc. Saw some amazing territory, sailed with porpoises, saw humpbacks, minke whales, orcas, grizzlies and black bears, otter, lots of salmon (even caught some) etc. Misty Fjords National Monument in Alaska was perhaps the highlight - deep fjords, 4 and 5 thousand foot cliffs rising straight from the 300 fathom deep water, waterfalls, no navigation aids, no roads, no buildings, and almost no other people. More bears than people. Strange to be back.

We were the smallest boat we saw actually travelling once we got north of Vancouver or so, all the way up and back down until around Seymour Narrows.

Mango Tango's trip to Hawaii removed any doubt, but I found that the comparably tiny "open" stretches of the trip - Queen Charlotte Sound and Dixon Entrance - were handled just fine by our little craft. We did get in one pretty nasty blow - 50 knot winds and 5-6 foot waves, but she handled very well under just the main going downwind for five miles until we could get out of it. (After a week of PERFECT wind we got a little cocky about listening to the weather reports, I guess. Our one instance of a lapse of caution.) Worked out fine, though.

Unfortunately, now that I'm especially attached to the boat and have spent a lot of time and money making it as solid and well-equipped as possible, my debts and plans force me to sell her. I'm still living aboard in Bellingham until Friday morning, the 22nd, Gate 3 visitor dock or Gate 8, if anyone dying to buy a well-kept SJ24 in the next 48 hours needs to find me. If it doesn't sell before that I will trailer the boat to North Idaho, where I can be reached at 509 891 0758 through the winter.

Hopefully I will post a few photos from the trip soon.

Jeremy Pataky "Merlin"

How much weight ?

Hi, I took out our SJ24 out for a Vancouver Fireworks night. It was a very crowded bay. I had 11 people on board (average 130 Lbs Each) We used 2 anchors to hold the boat for a broadside view of the fireworks barge on the front line of the viewing area. Awsome & Noisy it was. The boat handled quite well but tended to roll more than usual. Not over to dip the rails into the water, but you felt that way in the dark. It came back nicely, even with all hands scattered over the decks and motoring around the various "Drunken Sailors". Caution and patience is required to navigate the traffic back into the harbour after the event. I suspect some of the other skippers had slowed down their reaction time in some way. Caution, alertness and collision avoidance techniques are manditory for Fireworks Nights.

Ken C