Explore the Alaskan Coast

“TO GO BOLDLY where no man has gone before” could be the Hills’s mantra as well as the Enterprise crew’s.
The 108-page account of Patrick and Heather Hill’s Alaska explorations will have many skippers longing for this “last frontier”.
With only three weeks off and a dream to return to Alaska much larger than that time frame, the couple came up with a plan to divide the trip north into three legs and to find two other sailing teams that could take each leg. Firstly Dr. Peter Padwick would take his team and sail to Valdez. However, he wanted to take a boat he was familiar with, his 42-foot Fraser, Justa. He would take leg 1 (Vancouver to Valdez, two weeks) and leg two. Valdez to Glacier Bay (three weeks). Heather and Patrick would join them for leg two with their team of Robb Barr and Mark Webber. The third team would take five weeks to sail south to Vancouver, headed by Charles Priester and his four-person crew. As Priester also owned a Fraser 42, he would already be familiar with the boat.
For Patrick and Heather the 1000-mile trip from Valdez to Glacier Bay would be their dream cruise and an exploration of exciting new waters and territory. They only needed to sail 45 to 50 miles each day, which was a good thing because there was plenty for them to explore.
Written in six chapters: Prince William Sound, Icy Bay, Yakutat Bay, Lituya Bay and Glacier Bay, with a first chapter on planning, a foreword and an interesting appendix by the late Dr. Padwick that answers many questions interested readers are going to have, the book also is loaded with colour photos that hint at the beauty of the area as well as the euphoria of its explorers. Imagine sailing into areas where only four private boats visit annually! Some of the other adventures, like experiencing an earthquake while aboard and listening to icebergs calf nearby, may not be the adrenalin rush every cruiser is looking for, but the remoteness, the beauty and the solitude is bound to appeal to most skippers fresh from the crush of lower mainland summer anchorages and their attendant noise of generators.
Hill. who is a member of the RVYC and the WVYC, also throws in some natural history, exploration history and other details to help flesh out the account. This is his second book. His first, Home on the Waves, a Pacific Sailing Adventure, is also available.
: per Pacific Yachting, November 2017 issue
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Explore the Alaskan Coast, 2nd edition (black-and-white version)
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Explore the Alaskan Coast

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French Silk on Water

Patrick and Heather had settled down after their sailing adventures. But there was an itch…

“Two years after I retired this special dream erupted into an urge to break out of my usual daily 7 am to 11 pm life and go offshore sailing again. This desire had kept niggling away and entering my daily thoughts and had finally come to a head. I wondered if it was one my wife, Heather, would seriously accept.

“Heather realized my mind was brooding on the side and being quite down to earth and not a time waster asked, ‘Well, what’s up? Where are we going?’”
Select the PayPal button to purchase the paperback, or click here for the ebook:
French Silk on Water

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