I've been wanting a butter bell for the boat, and found this cool one made by Red Wing Stoneware in Minnesota:
Red Wing Stoneware Co. butter bell ($35) from Duluth Pack. Butter goes in the part on the right, water goes in the part on the left, and when put together the water creates an airtight seal on the butter so it stays fresh and soft (and I don't have to keep it in the fridge on the boat, which is nice, since the fridge is small).
I picked up some of these cloth napkins for the boat (from Clear Sky Home on Etsy) … planning to use less paper products while cruising (especially cruising in more remote areas, since it's tougher to get rid of trash as often).
They don't match our plates at all, but who cares? How cute are these?
(I got these yellow ones too, which really don't match our plates. I'm thinking they might clash enough to totally work together.)
Kevin and I each got ourselves a pair of Xtratufs (also called Alaskan sneakers, Alaskan slippers, Sitka slippers, etc.). These will come in super handy in the wet Southeast AK weather and when getting in and out of the dinghy and exploring (also when fishing and oystering here at home in the Pacific Northwest). They're completely waterproof and highly recommended by Alaskans everywhere:
And last but not least, we ordered a new tandem kayak for Airship. We looked at several, and our original plan after seeing them at the Seattle Boat show was to go with the Airis Tandem by Walker Bay, but after a bunch of research, we ended up going with the Sea Eagle 385 Fast Track. It packs down remarkably small for a tandem kayak (good for carrying on the boat), is very quick to set up (also important), and has great reviews. We'll let you know after we've used it a bit.
Our "Get Ready/To Do List for Alaska" is pretty standard at this point (we've done a ton already, including boat maintenance and some extra safety provisioning). From now until when we leave in May, it's all about stuff like procuring a couple more spare parts we want to have with us, getting extra Nespresso pods and Sodastream fizzers, oil and filters for a couple oil changes, miscellaneous extra tools, a Costco run, updating the Garmin charts to the latest greatest, getting some fishing gear and maybe another crab trap, more Merino wool socks, etc.
It was exciting planning our Alaska meet up with Tiffani and Deke with them while we were visiting in North Carolina this past week. Their plan is to meet us in Juneau mid/late June and then travel with us down to Petersburg, with proposed stops at Taku Harbor, Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glacier, Petersburg, LeConte Glacier, Thomas Bay, Pybus Bay, several spots on Baranof Island (including the warm springs), and then heading around to Sitka where we plan to spend the 4th of July. They'll fly home from Sitka, and we'll continue on south.
We leave in just over a month–it's so close (and yet so far…650+ nautical miles from Anacortes to Ketchikan, and then most people do another 1000+ nm in SE Alaska. Sam and Mark said most people go at least 2300 nm on a trip like this, and that it’s easy to go 3500 nm). We're SO excited!
