InsidePassageNews.com

New updated information for Exploring Southeast Alaska, 2nd Edition and Exploring the North Coast of British Columbia, 2nd Edition, is available on InsidePassageNews.com. Click here for the 2011 updates.

In addition to the 2011 updates from Don and Réanne, updates for 2009 and 2010 for Exploring Southeast Alaska, Exploring the North Coast of British Columbia, Exploring the South Coast of British Columbia and Exploring the San Juan and Gulf Islands are also available. Click here for the 2009 and 2010 updates.

Don and Reanne would like to encourage readers who have updates to their guidebooks to submit them directly to them (Don Douglass or Réanne Hemingway-Douglass), as well as the publisher of our guidebooks.

Chilean Pilot Recommends Réanne's Book
I am a Maritime Pilot in the Chilean southern channels and frequently sail the Golfo of Trinidad and pass Puerto Henry, a place known to both of you.* Some years ago, visiting Canada I had the chance to read Reanne’s book that I enjoyed very much. It is a conversation topic that always comes up when I have the chance to talk with passengers or crew of the ships I pilot. I’m preparing a presentation with some of the many incidents that occur in these waters and I think that the experience you suffered is worth to be known by everyone sailing in the "roaring forties and howling fifties," even inside the channels.

The bad experience you had with some ships that didn’t stop to assist you has been used to reinforce the necessity to make radio contact with all sailing boats and be very careful with any sign made by them. Although the maritime control now is very good, sometimes we pilots are requested to look or try to contact small sailing boats that don´t report to the maritime authorities in due time.

Once again, I’m happy to tell you that I enjoyed Réanne´s book very much and will continue recommending it.

Daniel Arellano
Walbaum, Maritime Pilot in the channels of Southern Chile;
Vice Admiral Ret., Chilean Navy

Don Douglass presented his paper, Possible Clues to Chirikov's Lost Crewmen, to the 2010 International Conference on Russian America held in Sitka, Alaska, August 19-21, 2010. Click the image to the right to download and read Don's paper in PDF format.

Also see related article, Alaska's Bigest Mystery Revealed, below.

Overwhelmed, Jack Eichmann left the marine supply store in Southern California loaded with NOAA charts for the Pacific Coast of the U.S.; the four Yachtsman Northwest Chart books that cover the coast and the Expanded 2nd edition of Exploring the Pacific Coast San Diego to Seattle by Don Douglass and Réanne Hemingway-Douglass. The search for his perfect, first boat had ended, unexpectedly, in Newport Beach, California with a beautiful 25-year old 33’ Hans Christian. Jack had basically sailed just on Puget Sound on friends’ boats and he had assumed he’d find a boat more locally. Now, all of a sudden, he had a chance to live a dream—to bring his boat up the coast. With 14 days off work, though, he had to find a crew, buy navigational tools, fly to California, buy the boat, provision her and come up the coast. Read more . . .

Don and Réanne Douglass, aboard their two Research Vessels, both named Baidarka, have been exploring the Pacific Coast and Alaska for more than two decades. They recently shared a discovery with both the State and Federal scientists who may be able to help answer a long-unsolved puzzle.

In 1741, two vessels of the Bering Expedition, set sail from Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula to explore the west coast of America and shortly afterward lost track of one another. Chirikov’s vessel, the St. Paul, reached Southeast Alaska and the captain sent 15 crew members ashore. The men never returned to the ship. Exactly where was the St. Paul located, and what happened to the fifteen lost crewmen? This is the great mystery.

Yakobi and Chichagof islands have been featured in detailed diagrams for over a decade in the Douglass publications and, until recently, the Douglasses and Alan Engstrom of Juneau have been the sole explorers to study historical leads and actively pursue an answer to the Chirikov questions.

In 2007, the Douglasses and Engstrom contacted Federal authorities about an unrecorded petroglyph that might be a two-masted sailing ship and Douglass’ discovery of a metal object that might be “a dagger associated with the Chirikov crew.”

These explorations lead Mark McCallum and Rachel Myron, USFS Archaeologists, to organize an expedition in 2008 aboard the USFS vessel, Sitka Ranger, that would allow the Government experts and Tribal leaders to have an initial viewing of the Douglass/Engstrom discoveries.

For futures updates contact Don Douglass at don@insidepassagenews.com. For USFS reference click here.

The distribution and publishing rights for Cape Horn: One Man’s Dream, One Woman’s Nightmare by Réanne Hemingway-Douglass are now solely in the author’s hands, so you can order directly from this website or from your local bookstores.

Considered a classic in nautical survival literature, Cape Horn has also been published in French and Italian. In addition, two chapters of the title are included in McGraw Hill’s Epic Series anthology, Treacherous Waters.

A new and revised edition of Cape Horn was published in 2003 and, due to the title’s continued success and readers’ requests for a more complete epilogue, Réanne is currently working on an updated third edition.

This year marks the anniversary of Cape Horn’s first edition. Watermark Book company of Anacortes, Washington, the first retailer on the West Coast to carry Cape Horn, recently celebrated the 15th consecutive year of selling the title. In the photo above, the crew takes delivery of a new order from Réanne. Shown left to right are Barbara Hoenselaar, Dave Taylor, Réanne and Carolyn Moulton.