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John Livingston: Master Carver and Painter of Northwest Native Art…….. . Sharry and I stopped in Victoria to visit with John Livingston and his wife Maxine Matilpi.  Unfortunately, we missed Maxine because she was at Gilford Island teaching women how to make button blankets, a traditional art form of the coastal people which is her specialty.   John came to dinner on Starr and we talked about our growing friendship over the past 30 or so years. John carved this pole for Sharry and I many years …
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Alert Bay July 16,  Meet Stevie and Stella Beans:  The best Grease Maker and Fisherman on the BC Coast We left Goose Island, north of Queen Charlotte Sound at 0430 to ride an ebb tide down coast, and then caught a flood tide of 3-4 kts pushing us into Queen Charlotte Sound for a 1630 arrival in Alert Bay.  We wanted to get to Alert Bay before Stevie Beans left the next morning to go Prince Rupert to fish for salmon on his 58ft seine boat Ocean Predator.  Stevie is a high chief of the Namgis (AK…
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Friday the 13th. 53 18N 129 05W 0500 Sun just starting to come up We departed Prince Rupert yesterday morning and caught the ebb tide to ride south thru Grenville Channel and got big boost, hitting 13kn for a short time. That is a 5kn increase for our steady 8kn Starr. We were passed by Western Towboat’s 130ft Gulf Titan towing a 1×4 (100 x 400ft) barge loaded to the hilt with containers from SE Alaska heading to Seattle. I had a nice chat on the VHF with the Gulf Titan skipper and we talk…
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Friday the 13th. 53 18N 129 05W 0500 Sun just starting to come up We departed Prince Rupert yesterday morning and caught the ebb tide to ride south thru Grenville Channel and got big boost, hitting 13kn for a short time. That is a 5kn increase for our steady 8kn Starr. We were passed by Western Towboat’s 130ft Gulf Titan towing a 1×4 (100 x 400ft) barge loaded to the hilt with containers from SE Alaska heading to Seattle. I had a nice chat on the VHF with the Gulf Titan skipper and we talk…

It’s salmon season and the purse seiners are out in full force.  As we cruise down the east coast of Baranof we see the seiners with their nets out, and their sein skiffs noisily pulling in their nets in the process of closing the net into a continuous purse.  The fish tenders are standing by ready to offload the fish as soon as the purse sein skipper gives the order. While in Petersburg, next to where we were moored at the North Harbor Pier, the fish tenders were offloading the salmon at the T…
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Red Bluff Bay July 5&6, 2018 56 51N, 134 44W The Land of Plenty We ran down Chatham Strait after exiting Peril Strait with the current giving us a one and one- half knot boost. It is always a thrill to see the hundreds of streams cascading down the steep mountains on the East side of Baranof Island.  The snow is almost all melted off the tops. We pulled into Red Bluff Bay and dropped our 2 shrimp pots just inside the entrance in 350ft of water.  Steve and Kim Oberto on their big trawler Maxim…
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Sitka, Alaska – Moored next to a 107 year old piece of Ballard Fishing History. Noodle and Lori flew back to Hawaii yesterday afternoon. Great crewmates and they will be missed. Sharry and I departed Sitka this morning at 12:30 today, the 4th of Jul…

Honolulu to Prince William Sound to Sitka June 27, 2018 We left Honolulu on Starr heading for Dutch Harbor on May 28. I didn’t know it at the time, but there was a ghost on our ship. As we departed Honolulu, there were five of us on board: Don and I, and our guests/crew, Bill Leary (Noodle) and Clay Huchinson (both from Kaneohe), and Kyle Kim (from Honolulu). The “Ghost” was just a dim shadow at departure, but grew larger and darker as we headed North. I could start this tale with a typica…
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A Whale of a Tail/Tale! Hey Kat! This story is for you! Yesterday we were ready to leave Northern Alaska to head across the Gulf of Alaska to Sitka. Sharry had just mentioned that we hadn’t seen very many whales over the past couple of weeks and just then I heard a scratching sound against the side of Starr’s hull. It sounded like rough sandpaper rubbing and the boat moved slightly to the port as though it was being pushed or nudged. Then I heard a blowing sound and smelled what seemed to be …
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June 26, 2018 59 41N, 144 32W; 2300Z We are making the 350nm crossing of the Gulf of Alaska heading to Sitka and just passed Cape St Elias on our port side, 75nm East of Prince William Sound. As I filled in the Ship’s Log I noted that we had covered 3165nm since leaving Honolulu with only 225nm of open water left to get to Lituya Bay Just North of Cape Spencer. The rest of the run to Seattle will be mostly in protected inside passage waters. The wheelhouse door is open and Starr’s quiet Cum…
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