We've spent a good amount of time over the past few months working on Antipodes, we feel that she is in great shape and ready to take on the challenges of the Pacific Northwest.
Our 2015 plan is as follows:
April - find a good weather window to head up the coast. We have about 850 nautical miles to travel before heading into the Straight of Juan de Fuca. Once inside the straight the seas get somewhat easier to manage and we won't be fighting the ocean swells to any extent. The summer/fall cruise will primarily be in the "inside passage", protected from most ocean conditions. However, we will need to get good at managing tides and currents as many places can be dangerous due to rapids (sample image below), currents and whirlpools. Not an issue as long as you time things right.
May/June - We'll be staying rather close to the Seattle area for the late spring, mainly due to our daughter Allie's graduation from Oregon State University on June 13th. We'll drive down for the graduation and Nancy will help Allie drive back to San Diego where she will start her life as an adult (Allie, not Nancy).
We will visit several areas while in this location including Port Angeles (Olympic National Park), Victoria, British Columbia including the Gulf Islands, the San Juan Islands and Hood Canal. We'll also stop in Seattle and several smaller boating communities over the two months. We are looking forward to seeing some of our Mexico made friends in Seattle as well.
July/August - After Nancy returns from San Diego we are planning to make a beeline to Alaska. We want to start as far north as possible to get as much time in Alaska as the weather will allow. The trip to Alaska will take about 12 days so we are looking at July 4th as our target date to be up there. We plan to visit Ketchikan, Juneau and Sitka while there, these will be the reprovisioning stops. Our adventure will include visiting Glacier Bay, the Misty Fjords, several glaciers as well as bear watching facilities. I plan on lots of fishing for Salmon, Halibut and Lingcod. We will do some crabbing as well, should be a feast!
September - We will start heading back towards Seattle in late August or early September. We plan on visiting areas on the way back down including the Broughton Islands and Desolation Sound. These are both beautiful areas full of islands, waterfalls and wildlife!
Finally, if all goes according to plan (lol), we will return to San Diego around December 1st.
Well, that's the plan. It will be interesting to see how much/little comes to fruition! Regardless, it will be an adventure and we're anxious to begin!
