Suddenly Skipper
By Réanne Hemingway-Douglass

“Prepare carefully. Take all the courses you can—by women, for women. Practice docking in home waters till you’re confident. Practice anchoring procedures. Know how to handle an emergency.” All the admonitions I had given women in seminars and talks over the
years whirled in my head as I saw Don lying prostrate on the dock at Namu, writhing in pain. The wake-up call came loud and clear: I would have to take over as skipper for the rest of our homebound trip from the Gulf of Alaska. From Namu on the central coast of British Columbia south to Anacortes, I would be in charge. Suddenly I was skipper.

Want to read more? The entire article that appeared in the 2007 premier issue of Pacific Yachting—Pacific Northwest is available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format on our webserver. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file. The file is 600 Kb and may take several minutes to download, depending on the speed of your Internet connection. Click here to download the article.

Alaska Is It for You?
By Réanne Hemingway-Douglass

Mention cruising in Alaska and superlatives flow: unparalleled scenery of high, snow-capped mountains, massive glaciers, wide vistas, extensive spruce and hemlock forests. Waters where whales, dolphins, sea otters and bird life abound; where black bear and the world’s great brown bear (grizzly) comb the shores and rivers; where numerous towns, small settlements and Native communities, all tied to the sea, offer their own divergent cultures.

Or, on the other hand, mention Alaska to some boaters and anxiety and fears well up. Remote wilderness waters with strong currents and high tides, changeable weather patterns and a rugged coast with more than 1,000 islands and countless islets, rocks and reefs, many of which are poorly charted.

Want to read more? The entire article that appeared in the December 2005 issue of Pacific Yachting is available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format on our webserver. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file. The file is 600 Kb and may take several minutes to download, depending on the speed of your Internet connection. Click here to download the article.

Alaska in 21' Mini-Trawlers?
By Réanne Hemingway-Douglass

As we cruised the Inside Passage to Alaska in the summer of 2003, we kept hearing from other boaters about three men travelling in three 21-foot Ranger mini-trawlers. The three men—Rick Huizi onboard the Kentucky Colonel, Nate Streitmatter onboard Wren and George Unterseher on Molly B—were the talk of the north coats. They were rousing the most curiosity we'd seen along the Inside Passage in recent years. However, we always seemed to miss them by a day or two.

It wasn't until we were homeward ound after five months in the Gulf of Alaska that we finally made contact with them in Ocean Falls. My husband, Don, and I were moored at the public dock on a rainy September evening when the three boatrs pulled alongside.

Want to read more? The entire article that appeared in the February 2005 issue of Pacific Yachting is available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format on our webserver. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file. The file is 1.3 Mb and may take several minutes to download, depending on the speed of your Internet connection. Click here to download the article.

Log of Baidarka 2001
By Don Douglass and Réanne Hemingway Douglass

The following article appeared as a seven-part series in Northwest Yachting Magazine between January and October, 2002. The article chronicles the Douglass' Summer 2001 research expedition aboard their Nordhavn 40, Baidarka, along the Inside Passage.

The Northwest Yachting articles are stored on our website in Adobe Acrobat format (PDF). You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or later installed on your computer to open the files. (Click here to download Acrobat Reader at no cost.)

Part I – Lagoons and Encounters with Ice and Bears (1 Mb)
 
Part II– New Alaska Anchorage Sites and the West Coast of Graham Island (700 Kb)

Part III – Moresby Island’s West Coast: The Mysterious Totem and Englefield Bay (1.5 Mb)
 
Part IV – Moresby Island's Uncharted West Coast: Cape Henry to Tasu Sound (1.2 Mb)
 
Part V – Moresby Island's Uncharted West Coast: Tasu Sound to Gowgaia Bay (1.1 Mb)
 
Part VI – Gowgaia Bay to Louscoone Inlet: The Pacific High Pressure Breaks Down with a Vengence! (900 Kb)
 
Part VII – Racing the Weather to Sandspit (1.1 Mb)

Beyond Nakwakto Rapids
By Don Douglass and Réanne Hemingway-Douglass

Hidden behind the world's fastest tidal rapids lies a totally landlocked area, little-known to cruising boaters. Although the area is only 28 miles north of Port Hardy, it has largely been ignored as a cruising destination, because its entrance, guarded by Nakwakto Rapids, has been turbulent enough to discourage large numbers of pleasure craft. Find out what lies behind Nakwakto Rapids in Réanne Hemingway and Don Douglass' article in the December 1999 issue of Pacific Yachting.

Alaska's Untamed Misty Fiords
By Don Douglass and Réanne Hemingway-Douglass

"I've seen three treasures of the world-The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite--and this is every bit as beautiful and impressive . . . and much wilder," our photographer said quietly under his breath. Find out more in Réanne Hemingway and Don Douglass' article, Alaska's Untamed Misty Fiords in the December 1999 issue of Power and Motoryacht.

Ocean Falls
By Réanne Hemingway-Douglass

If you are looking for quiet, uncrowded cruising waters off the beaten path, the Discovery Coast and Ocean Falls could be for you. Located at the head of beautiful Cousins Inlet, 12 miles northeast of Bella Bella, Ocean Falls is one of our favourite ports of call. Read more about Ocean Falls, a growing cruising destination that was nealry left a gohst town due to a mill closure in 1980.

Dreaming of Cape Horn
By Réanne Hemingway-Douglass

Have you ever thumbed through a book about Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America, dreaming about testing your sailing abilities in the great Southern Ocean? Or sighed as you watched the video of Irving Johnson runding Cape Horn, the "real" sailor's ultimate challenge?

Well, my sailor hushand Don had, from the time he was a young boy in the1940s until 1975 when the two of us tried to round Cape Horn on our own sailboat, a 42' William Garden ketch. His dream, however, became a nightmare when, 800 miles north-northwest of the Horn, we pitchpoled . . . more

Spiller Channel and Roscoe Inlet
By Don Douglass and Réanne Hemingway-Douglass
Photos by Herb Nickles

Imagine exploring a newly-charted area of the coast in your own boat. The release of CHS Chart 3940, covering previously uncharted Spiller Channel to Roscoe Inlet, the area north of Bella Bella, has opened up 300 square miles of wildemess, and the cruising community is rushing to visit this pristine area for the first time ever. Learn more . . .