Alaska Bound

MV Starr is underway on her adventure to Alaska! We cast off from the Waikiki Yacht Club this morning at 810AM, and as I write this we are moseying north along the Waianae coast about a mile offshore. Starr's cruising speed is a bit less than eight knots. We can go faster, up to about thirteen knots, but at the higher speeds we burn a lot of fuel and would run out half way across the ocean. At eight knots our fuel consumption is reasonable and won't have any problem making it to Alaska with the fuel we have aboard.

One of the advantages of being aboard a cruising boat is the ability to go anywhere you want to. Our originally planned destination was Kodiak Island, but we've been hearing some good things about the island of Unalaska, a spot in the Aleutians some 900 miles to the southwest of Kodiak. Our landfall in Alaska will likely be weather dependent. We may end up east or west of our desired destination if we have to avoid a weather system. If this was international travel we would have to ensure we entered the foreign country at an official port of entry, but we are traveling within the US, so we can go where we'd like to.

Right now the weather looks pretty good for the trip, but forecasts become unreliable more than a week out. It will likely take us about 11 days to get to Alaska, so the weather for the second week is still a bit uncertain.

There are five of us aboard Starr for this passage. Don and Sharry Stabbert, Starr's owners, have been cruising her extensively for nineteen years. They are running the show, with Kyle Kim, Clay Hutchinson, and myself (Noodle) aboard as crew.