A sea story from 1930’s relates an account of a young man outfitting an attractive ketch in Seattle to sail north through the Inside Passage to Alaska. Along comes a bitter old salt walking the docks looking to crush anyone’s hope for success at sea.

“So you’re goin’ YACHTING, are ya? If ya think that fancy YACHT is going far, ya might wanna talk to those fishermen over there or that tug captain. Wait ’til you see what that YACHT’S gonna look like up there, sonny boy.”

Lighthouses pose as the most exclusive Yacht Clubs in Alaska.

Seven years ago Jupiter arrives in Victoria looking all yachty and the crew wonders if they, like Thurston and Lovey Howell III on Gilligan’s Island, can fathom what is coming next.

Pacific Patina

Few cruising yachts make the long passage from Puget Sound to and through Alaskan waters, but those that do inevitably accumulate the essential materiel needed by Pacific mariners.

Decks become cluttered with deck chairs and dock chairs, kayaks, skiffs, crab pots and prawn pots, nets and grill sets, cudgels and coolers, heaters, gas cans, fenders, extenders, floats with a shackle and fishing tackle, brushes, boots, buckets and buckles, boat hooks, baskets, slickers and snubbers, hoses, hoists and harpoons and blubber spoons, and all manner of anchoring fitment and safety equipment.

Cruising boats in the Northwest, like prospectors heading for the Yukon, pack in everything needed. Yachts are rarely washed. Why bother? It rains eternally.

Yachts Find Spots

The majority of vessels up north are working boats: commercial fishing vessels, fishing charters, whale watchers, tugs and tows, barges, ferries, and landing craft. Local watermen have a surprising tolerance for yachts coasting about where their livings are made, occupying dockspace, passing pastimes when time is money.

Jupiter beds down with the fishing fleet in every Alaskan harbor, often hot-berthing when commercial vessels vacate slips to work.

An Alaskan Aquanaut

Heading up north to the last best frontier
The boat that we need is a true buccaneer

She’ll be stout, she’ll be strong, and welded of steel
High bows and heavy with a protective keel
Or maybe she’ll be a sleek landing craft
Sliding up beaches on broad shallow draft

No, no. Not that!

The decks must be wide and covered and airy
To store and to service small boats that we’ll carry
Like row boats and sailboats, paddle craft too
Of course a small sub with a subsurface view

She’ll be solar, electric, and diesel to boot
Horsepower enough for all rapids to shoot
Protection from rain with all heated floors
Windshield wipers installed on portholes and doors

We need a tall mast with a crows nest up high
To see far off whales and eagles that fly
Of course a cow catcher for logs in our way
No need to slow down, we’ll go leagues every day

The boat will be new and constructed just right
Stable in winds with big seas and at night
This ship will be forward and fast on the plane
But in harbors she’ll use a self-docking brain

Plenty radars, and sonars, antennas and dishes
One hundred rod holders to catch all the fishes
Surround sound and lighting that turns on at dusk
And satellite links to NOAA, NASA and Musk

Oh, to be Alaska’s Captain Aquanaut
But it’s just a small yacht that we brought