TrawlerCrawler.net

My thanks to Richard Cook of the Bounty 257 New Moon for posting his "commercial" in the Marketplace section of TrawlerCrawler.net rather than here.

Richard, whom I look forward to meeting some day, has written a book called Cruising in a Big Way based on his small-boat experiences over 18 years and 30,000 miles on the Inside Passage from Puget Sound to Glacier Bay in Southeast Alaska. He and his wife now cruise on the diesel-powered Bounty but began their boating with a C-Dory 22.

Any questions about the book or his experiences can be posted here.

--Georgs

I'd just like to say that I read Richard's book in 2 evenings. It's a wonderful compilation of information about how to cruise the PNW and Inside Passage in a small boat - something that I want to do someday. It's filled with practical suggestions and makes it all seem easy to do.

If I were the C-Dory company, I'd give one of these books away to every person who walked in the door. Reading it makes you want to take off and do it.

ActiveCaptain wrote:It's a wonderful compilation of information about how to cruise the PNW and Inside Passage in a small boat - something that I want to do someday. It's filled with practical suggestions and makes it all seem easy to do.

Now that I've had a chance to flip through my own copy of Cruising in a Big Way, I agree, it's an excellent book, especially for smaller-boat owners and wannabees.

The Admiral loved the photo of the 90-pound halibut and the recipes. We have fond memories of our Inside Passage cruise some years ago and the bountiful harvest of the sea we were able to enjoy. By heading north early in May, we had our pick of the best in crab, mussels and clams, and shrimps, too.

The only thing I'd recommend to Richard Cook to add to the next edition are two maps providing an overview of the Inside Passage and of Southeast Alaska. Everyone in the Pacific Northwest knows the lay of the land, but the rest of us could use orientation.

Well done, Richard!

--Georgs

Georgs Kolesnikovs
TomCat 24 At Last!
Frenchman's Bay, Lake Ontario
http://tomcat-tales.blogspot.com

Thanks Georgs!

Very glad you like it! Thinking about the seafood has me hungry to be heading north again.

As you suggest, I thought overview maps would be good. I burned many a day trying to come up with maps I could include in the book, but could not find anything workable that wasn't unavailable due to copyright issues. I thought I could use the NOAA charts for SE Alaska, but by the time I shrank them to book size they didn't have enough contrast to be usable. Maybe I just don't know enough about using the software that manipulates images.

The best solution I could come up with for an overview was to suggest a look at Google or Yahoo maps on the internet. For detail in US waters, the NOAA chart viewer is excellent. If there's anything like it for Canadian waters, I'd love to know.

I may have to hand-draw my own versions of maps for a second edition. If anyone could suggest un-copyrighted sources I'd sure appreciate it.