Itsuro Inside Passage Home Page
Itsuro 2008 updates:
Summer 2008 went very smoothly, even when the weather was not so smooth. The Itsuro and her crew reached their ultimate destination in Craig, Alaska. Itsuro made it from Blaine, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska on just 43 gallons of fuel. We are extremely happy with the Allweather's performance. Many thanks to Homer Hughes for building such a seaworthy, fuel-efficient boat. This year's route included stops in Meyers Chuck, Port Protection, Wrangell, El Capitan, and Craig, where Itsuro is now based. Click on the "Itsuro Inside Passage Journeys" link to the left for pictures and highlights for 2008.
The Tonie O and Itsuro Voyages Through the Inside Passage
Shawn and Tonie Ogimachi spend their summers cruising Alaska and Canada's Inside Passage aboard their small boat. For the first five years they made the trip aboard a 22-foot C-Dory cruiser named the Tonie O. The C-Dory had twin four-stroke, forty-horsepower Honda engines, radar, GPS, autopilot,
Wallas stove, plenty of fishing and trapping gear, as well as a mini harp to keep Tonie's fingers in shape. We have since sold the Tonie O, and in 2007 we spent our sixth Inside Passage summer aboard the Itsuro, an 8-meter Allweather Voyager, designed and built by Homer Hughes. The Allweather is a really well-thought out double-ender powered by a diesel Bukh 24, with a 1000-1500-mile range. At the end of the 2007 season, Itsuro had traveled 800 miles on just 53 gallons of fuel!
The photos and log notes on our websites have traced the Tonie O's trips through the Inside Passage of coastal British Columbia and Southeast Alaska. According to the Waggoner Cruising Guide and Leif G. Terdal's Small-Boat Cruising to Alaska, the smallest boats to comfortably make the voyage measure about 26 feet. The 22-foot Dory bucks the prevailing trend. Back then, we weren't the only C-Dory to successfully negotiate the Passage. In 2002, we encountered "Ol Aviator," a C-Dory from New Mexico, as he made the return trip from Skagway. In 2003, we met the crews of "Catch 22," "Halcyon" (Go to the Halcyon website; they've been everywhere!), and "Rana Verde" as they explored the Southeast Alaskan waters. In 2004, we met the crews of Naknek, in Sitka and "Miss Polly" (from Juneau), in Tenakee Hot Springs. In the subsequent years after we started this ongoing adventure, we've seen many C-Dory's make the trip, including a nice new 25-footer we met at Minstrel Island in 2007. We will miss the speed and charm of the Tonie O, but we look forward to the dramatically increased range, and the comfort and grace of the Allweather. Four more feet of length also make a substiantial and luxurious difference in terms of living space and storage.
2005 and 2006 brought special guest crew, David Spencer from Afton, Virginia to fill in during the B.C. portion of the trip, while Tonie was finishing work in California. 2006 also brought our good friends, Jeff and Cheryl up to Pelican for a Rosie-style wedding. We also celebrated Jean and Neil Ogimachi's 50th wedding anniversary in Craig, Alaska that year.
From the 2002 log: "Reflective moments as this long adventurous trip winds down to an easy return: over the trip there are many apprehensive moments, knowing that logs, ice, rogue waves, and a myriad of other hazards can take you down anytime.
During this time our lives were dictated by tides, wind, current, and our nautical charts. We learn to adapt to live within this context. Rounding the final lighthouse, we sense that time and traffic will again dictate our next moves, while we slowly lose touch with the tides and winds--sigh! But the time we spent, the waters we traveled, and the latitudes we gained were well worth any effort."