Trip Planning:

This blog is our first attempt at "blogging". We hope to use this bog to document our trip to Alaska and the inside passge this summer. We plan on leaving in mid May returning in mid September. Getting ready for a 4 month month boat trip is a lot more complicated that just taking a vacation. What about the bills? What about the mail? What about health care? What do we pack? What spare equipment do we need? and the list goes on and on! Watch this blog for the day to day planning and ultimately the diary of events as they unfold during our trip.

We recently had a new autopilot system put in and, wow! it is great. Everything interfaces with the navigation computer now, including wind and depth. Really cool. We also put an AIS system on board. AIS is a system that identifies commercial vessels and provides a great deal of information about them, including their heading and destination. This is a safety must for anyone that travels/crosses shipping lanes or could find themselves boating in fog. Last spring, we purchased a new Walker Bay dingy in preparation for the big trip.

Now, we are doing a number of preventive maintenance items including new belts, new injectors for the main engine as well as the generator, new oil and transmission coolers, heat exchanger serviced, etc. She should be in great shape for the upcoming trip which should total over 3,000 miles.