Let's hear from some cruisers

We hear a lot from the racers. How about the cruisers in the NW? How many cases of spam and canned meat do you guys carry for a 2 week cruise? How much water, propane, etc.? Do you depend on catching dinner several days? Who feeds the pets while you're away? Here in the SE we can stop in on the ICW for a cold one and dinner but the NW looks more isolated? What if you get a toothache?
Inquiring minds want to know???

Art,
I lived in Alaska over 25 years and traveled from Seattle through BC, SE Alaska and through the Gulf of AK with my E30+. I have never been anywhere that I love more than the NW..the isolation with anchorages all to yourself are wonderful. There are many towns in BC and SE Alaska to stop for a beer or supplies albeit, more expensive than the ICW. I used to carry lots of the usual breakfast stuff that can be mixed with water, ie, oatmeal, dried fruits and of course coffee. Nothing better than being on deck before the sun rises with a hot cup of coffee wrapped in cold hands in the cool and damp NW! The smells are great and the ravens talk. I usually stayed away from canned things preferring dried soups and the occasional freeze dried dinners which I became accustomed to during my years in mountaineering. On occasion, I'd drop a line over the side of the boat and reel up a "brown bomber" (rockfish) for supper with a little rice and would break open one of those "biscuits in a tube" to bake and nicely smell up the boat. As you can see, simplicity, for me, was the joy in travel when in the NW. I'm now new to the Chesapeake and preparing to cruise this area beginning in another month. No doubt the supplies I carry here will be the same. Hope to cross your path one of these days.
Gary Freeburg
SV Katmai
E27

Try.. http://www.trafficated.com/index.htm

This was posted on the site in the past, don't remember why other then an interesting FYI...

http://www.trafficated.com/index.htm

An interesting bold trip in an E28, perhaps you can try and contact and share some thoughts from these guys... I think it's classic they relate their Ericson made/designed in CA with their Country... prehaps like having pizza at an Olive Garden in Rome

Great Lakes?

My wife and I were certainly cruisers aboard our E-38 Rag Doll, not racers. And while we didn't cruise in the NW that you ask about, our cruises in the remote areas of the North Channel of the Great Lakes were quite isolated, with a visit to town only about every 8 days or so. We carried all the food (and laundry!) we needed for a four week cruise, only stopping in town for ice, water, and a pump out.

And while I never got a toothache, I did fall down once getting out of the dinghy and split my forehead open all the way to the skull. Happened about 5 PM, and the nearest doctor was about six hours away, so I just had to close it with a butterfly bandage and wait till the next day for treatment (you don't travel at night in the North Channel, too many rocks!).

No meat, as we are vegetarians, which makes outfitting the galley much easier. Water was 65 gallons, which easily lasted the two of us 8 days (we used lake water for showers). For cooking we used CNG, and found we needed about 1.5 tanks for the four weeks.

Anyway, if you really want to read more about cruising the North Channel, you are welcome to go to my web page at http://webpages.charter.net/besley/ and check out one of my cruising stories from our first years with Rag Doll, back in '94, '95, and '96. I used to write up the cruise each year as a narrative for family and friends (sort of like a 20 page Christmas card). '94 was our first year with the boat, and we stayed at the many state marinas along the shore of Michigan for our first Ericson cruise. But in '95 and '96 we anchored out about 4 weeks each in the North Channel.

Speaking of writing, I just got another article accepted for publication in Ocean Navigator. Not sure of the publication date yet, but I'll let everyone on the board know.

30+ thousand miles in a e-39 count?

Check out the web site, everything isn't quite there yet, but we will get to it once the 46 is finished.

Guy and Melissa Stevens.

www.svpneuma.com

Cruzin

If you cruise out here in the NW, you need to do Barkley Sound. Good fishing, great views, still within a day of medical help, lots of cool places to go. Bring an inflatable to get into places. I have canoed up there on three separate trips w/ the Boy Scouts, 11 days each time. Good times. Cruised there several in the e 30+. I don't get to take Spam along anymore, the first mate doesn't like it, even with Velveeta. [Cheese?] Polenta makes a good emergency ration, keeps for at least 6 months. No water except at Uclulet or Bamfield. Bring really good charts, and use them. Harold and Jessie, S/V Mischief Maker.