SV SIRI

08/30/2026

Thank you and see you later, Canada. 🇨🇦 🥺

Today, after a whirlwind month of boat projects, tying up the last of some loose ends, and spending quality time with old and new friends, we crossed the southern Canadian border for the last time.

It’s bittersweet taking down that maple leaf courtesy flag, not knowing when—or if—we’ll be back.

Southern BC, and especially Sidney, will forever hold a special place in our hearts. It’s where SIRI was built and launched in 1993, where we bought her in 2022, and where we’ve kept her ever since. Somewhere along the way, it became an unexpected de facto landing spot for us as we readied the boat and ourselves—and, more importantly, where we built a pretty incredible group of people who planted themselves firmly in our corner and helped us make this dream a reality.

From SIRI’s former owners to people who literally built her—including the boat designer and his lovely wife—to our broker and the many other BC folks who have supported us, cheered us on, lent a hand, and played a role in getting us to this point: thank you.

We didn’t expect Southern BC to play such an important role in this journey, but in hindsight, we’re awfully glad it did.

We’ll forever have a soft spot for Vancouver Island, and for the people who made us feel welcome and like we might just be able to pull this off.

Now, few more things to wrap up this week in the San Juan’s then it’s waiting for a good weather window to start making progress southbound. 🌎⛵️

07/24/2026

Captain’s log 7/24/26: And thus concludes our summer shakedown to Alaska. A light air sail/motor/motorsail back to Sidney to wait for next week's haul out and parts to arrive. We’re due for laundry, boat wash, people wash, and rest. With only 3 significant breakages during the trip, the shakedown was a rousing success. A few statistics below:

Miles covered - ~3,000
Days total - 88
Days of travel - 60
Average miles per travel day - 50
Average hours per travel day - 8.5
Top sailing speed - 12.8 SOG
Top wind speed - 30+kts
Engine hours - 430
Bears 🐻 - 4
Whales 🐳 - too many to count
Porpoises 🐬 - too many to count
Glaciers 🧊- 4
Fish caught 🎣 - 3

07/09/2026

BEAR(s)! (Finally)

We’re down to single digits of days we have left in SE Alaska and we were starting to accept that checking off "seeing bears" on our wildlife bingo card wasn’t going to happen.

This afternoon, as Ethan was settling in for a nap in the cockpit, he looked around and noticed something on shore start moving.

“Bear,” he calmly said.

Realizing he wasn’t already dreaming in a deep midday slumber, I scurried up the companionway steps with the camera and binoculars in hand to watch a (big) mamma brown bear and her three cubs forage around on shore for almost an hour.

Big Mamma looked over at us a few times, but evidently regaining weight and keeping an eye on three littles is enough of a job for her to not care about us being anchored in the bay an eighth mile away.

The bay we're anchored in is actually called “Still Harbor“ but as far as we’re concerned, it will henceforth be referred to as “Big Mammas Bay”.

Good thing Tessi is getting good at doing her business on the boat because we ain’t messing with Big Mamma or her shoreline.

07/04/2026

At our last stop at a forest service dock called Shelter Bohemia, we had a few encounters with some elusive beings that we had all but decided didn’t really exist.

✅ Saw a pod of resident orcas 🫍
✅ Finally caught a fish (three in fact) 🎣
✅ Came across a dinosaur 🦖

07/02/2026

Sun ☀️ and sailing ⛵️ at the same time in Southeast Alaska?

We better go buy a lotto ticket with this kind of luck. 🍀

06/28/2026

Capitan's log 6/26/26: It's all downhill from here...
59°02'.583N 137°03'.216W

Margerie Glacier, or ‘ole large Marge as they say (possibly), marks the end of our heading North for the foreseeable future, likely years.

Slightly more brash ice in the channel on the approach with a few active calving bits while we were there. Only 2 other boats in the inlet, both headed out shortly after we made it to the glacier face. The color of the water in the inlets is hard to believe, it looks like it was dyed. We left Marg and headed south to another glacier, the non-tidal water (aka not in the water anymore) Reid Glacier which will be our anchorage for the night. Less impressive, but also not trying to kill us or sink the boat…so that’s cool.

From here it’s all downhill until we smell tacos 🌮 and margaritas 🍹.

06/18/2026

Since our last blog post, we've sailed almost 2,000 miles!

We're learning. We're moving and shaking down this whole living, working, cruising and boat systems deal.

But man, it's taking more time than we thought, and sometimes one of the balls we're juggling falls out of the air a bit (ahem, regular blog posts, for instance).

We're hoping to catch up on posts soon with more details about our travels lately, but in the meantime, here's a sneak peak of what we've been up to, and how to follow along in other ways when we're behind on blog updates!

We're alive. We're sailing (mostly motoring), a lot. We're learning. We're moving and shaking down this whole living, working, cruising and boat systems deal. And, we're in Alaska! But it's taking more time than we thought, and sometimes one of the balls we're juggling falls out of the air.