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Powering Through Paradise
A Guide to Exploring the Virgin Islands Without Hoisting a Sail
by Mark Bunzel

This Power Cruising article is 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.)

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The Big Chill
Discovering the Rewards of Cruising the Pacific Northwest in the Cooler Months
by Mark Bunzel

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14 Days Up the Inside Passage by Wooden Boat
by Mark Bunzel

Follow the adventures of FineEdge.com publisher, Mark Bunzel, as he joins the crew of one of five Sam-Devlin-designed wooden boats as they cruise the Inside Passage. The purpose of Mark's trip was to collect material for articles in several popular cruising magazines. Click here to read Mark's updates to his daily log as the boats made their way north.

Exploring Northern Boundary Islands
Sucia, Clark, Matia, and Patos
By Mark Bunzel

The Northern Boundary Islands are so called as they are the northwestern most islands in the continental United States. Like so many of the islands in the San Juans, they are rich in history laced with intrigue. The island’s unique sandstone, which today forms beautiful natural sculptures, is said to have been formed by the uplifting of ancient sandstone by the collision of the oceanic and continental plates. Over the years some lucky collectors have found fossils imbedded in the sandstone as they explore the island’s trails and rock formations. More . . .

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.

"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 . . .