Charter Cruising to Alaska with Mother Goose
The Inside Passage runs from the Pacific Northwest of Washington’s Puget Sound and courses through Canadian British Columbia, 1,700 nautical miles north to Skagway, Alaska. Most of the way the coast line on both sides is uninhabited. Cell service is sparse. Marinas are even less so. This is nature at its best.
The sounds, channels, bays, and straits and fjords teem with wildlife; whales, orcas, dolphins, seals, sea lions, and the national bird keeping an eye pealed for a quick snack. On land, brown and black bears can be seen if you’re lucky. On all sides flowing down from 3,000-foot-high mountains that surround the passage.
NW Explorations
Happily, a company called NW Explorations, based in Bellingham, Washington, makes it easy for boaters to experience the majesty of this remarkable cruising ground. For the last 14 years it has run what it calls Mother Goose Flotilla cruises from early May to the end of August, from Bellingham through the Inside Passage and back.
NW Explorations has been in business since 2004, and is an unusual combination of yacht management, yacht maintenance, charter, brokerage, and boat handling training courses. And most of these services are employed for the Mother Goose cruise.
Cruising in Company
Yacht clubs all over the world have their annual summer cruise. For example, the New York Yacht Club’s annual cruise is usually in Maine, and as many as 75 boats or more participate. On the West Coast, the St. Francis YC often cruises the Sacramento River delta. Other groups like the Cruising Club of America often go further afield and members either take their own boats or charter locally.
NW Explorations’ Mother Goose Flotilla is very much like a yacht club cruise in company, with the exception being that it is all charter, and the company makes all of the reservations, and provides knowledgeable help for nearly any need. In most ways it is better than owning your own boat because NW maintains the boat, the charter fee is a fraction of annual ownership, and the boats are in one of the world’s best cruising grounds. It also changes the route somewhat every year, so that is why participants return year after year until they have completed all 8 legs, or taken advantage of new routes.
Very Well Maintained. All of the boats in the flotilla are independently owned, but NW Explorations maintains the boats in what is like-new condition. Before being put into charter service, each yacht must pass the company’s rigorous 18-page annual checklist that insures near perfect condition before each voyage. And, the owner must agree to NW’s rigorous maintenance schedule a boat is taken on by the company. Also, the boat must be kept at NW’s docks in Bellingham. Smart owners know they are getting the best of the bargain. And so are the charters.
We have chartered two boats from the company, one 15 years old and one over 30 years old -- and both were in like-new condition.
Making it All Affordable
Most people these days don’t have the time or the spare cash to charter a well-found boat for a 1,700-mile cruise at displacement speeds. But most people do have two weeks free in the summer, and if a person can afford to own a boat, they can afford a NW charter in the Mother Goose Flotilla. The 3,400-mile round trip passage is divided into eight parts each year. With five boats available, each with eight legs, it means that 40 separate charters are available. Mother Goose is the sixth boat.
ALERT! As we go to press, 32 of the 40 charter legs have already been booked. Only eight are left. The fact that the flotilla is nearly completely booked up six months ahead of the first departure is the greatest testament of all to the degree of satisfaction among people who have been on the cruise. Over 50% are repeat clients.
The Mother Goose Flotilla
We think of the Mother Goose cruise as a floating concierge service that is much better than anything we’re ever experienced at a five-star hotel in London or Paris. Not only does the company arrange for all slips and take care of moorage fees, and insurance, the staff on Mother Goose call taxis, set up excursions and day-trips with third party venders for salmon fishing, handle dock lines, hook up shore power, and even shuck oysters for their charter parties, on occasion.
The captain of our Mother Goose flotilla was a retired commander of an 800-foot Naval vessel who gently guided all the goslings through the narrows and into tricky slips. His easy-going manner and considerate demeanor made even the most novice skipper feel good about his docking abilities. We could not help but feel that the men under his Navy command were quite lucky to have such a caring man in charge of their destiny.
The riding mechanic, was a technical wizard thoroughly familiar with everything in each boat’s engine room and could repair things on the fly, because he had spent most of his spring making sure the fleet equipment was in top-notch order. He was only a VHF call away, 24 hours a day. Occasionally, he had parts flown in special delivery from Bellingham.
A naturalist explained the most arcane and fascinating aspects of the local flora and fauna. Our curious seven-year-old peppered her with all manner of questions about jellyfish and seaweed, and she had answers for everything. The adults on our vessel were fastened by her description of the retreating glacier up the fjords and how long it took nature to replant itself.
Two young mates helping with tree tie-ups, morning trash collection, fender adjustment, quickly and silently like two darting sea otters, moving silently from boat to boat to secure lines, or to offer a hand with most any chore.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Mother Goose Cruise
Question #1: What level of boat-handling experience is required?
NW Explorations generally wants charters with twin-engine experience in boats roughly the size range of those being chartered. But they also offer boat-handling training courses year-round for people that may need more experience either with one-on-one or group training. Some people take a week of training just prior to the cruise.
Question #2: How rough are the sea conditions?
Most of the cruising is in protected water. And while there are a few stretches open to the Pacific here and there, and the Strait of Georgia is large and can be a bit rough, mild conditions prevail for most of the cruise.
Question #3: How far does the flotilla travel each day?
On most days, during our leg, we travelled 35 to 45 nautical miles. Typically, we started at 8am and tied up or anchored at about 2pm. And, on most days, there were optional activities available on shore, such as hiking, cultural tours, charter fishing, or bear watching with third party providers. All of these activities were arranged by the Mother Goose concierge service.
Question #4: Are the boats difficult to operate?
No. Each charter party gets a thorough walk through the boat, and operational instruction, on the day prior to casting off. Each aspect of the equipment is explained in detail. People familiar with boats should have no trouble grasping it all.
Question #5: Are the boats difficult to dock or anchor?
As anywhere, the degree of difficulty has to do with one’s experience with twin engine cruisers, and the strength and direction of the current at the dock. In certain places in the Inside Passage, the current can be 3 to 6 knots at certain times of the day. The fleet captain is mindful of this and tries to arrive at docks that are vulnerable to strong currents during slack tide. At every dock, the full crew of the Mother Goose is standing by to take docklines and tie off the boat, as well as to offer suggestions as to how to approach, if needed.
Anchoring is also a non-issue because our concierge service points out the best places to drop the hook, and even helps with rafting up and tree tie-ups.
Question #6: Should children be taken aboard?
By all means. While we were the only boat on this cruise with both adult children and grandchildren, ages 14 months and seven years old, both adapted easily to the boat, and the seven-year-old didn’t want to leave. Of course, kids should always wear a PFD when on the dock, and when on deck. The little one was happy walking around the salon which was fenced off with a gate, and took his morning and afternoon nap in a Pack and Play near the door to the engine room in the boat’s office.
Question #7: How was the food?
Charters are responsible for their own provisioning. We discovered that fresh sea food was available in some places but not in others even though the marina was full of fishing trawlers. Again, our concierge service came to the rescue telling us when and where we could buy the sea food. We also discovered that, without fail, when we stopped on the dock to admire a local fisherman cleaning his catch, we were offered part of it for free. (FYI, king crab legs are frozen in Alaska just as they are everywhere else.)
Question #8: What is the most exciting aspect of the cruise?
Each person will have their own special favorites. I found the landscape the most memorable. The scenery, the fjords, the snow-topped mountains, the waterfalls streaming down the mountainsides, the canyons leading up to the glaciers where you could see the grooves etched into the granite walls by the glacier which is 20,000 years old, the icebergs, and of course the glaciers themselves.
Wildlife. Others will say that the wild life we saw along the way was the best experience. The bears and their cubs out fishing for salmon, with great success in the Anan Forest Reserve, the ubiquitous bald eagles looking for lunch, or the whales blowing in the distance and the seals crowded on rocks and buoys, and the orcas that we saw along the way signaling hi with their long dorsal fins. And what fun it was to catch crabs in the pots supplied to every boat.
Question #9: How much does it cost and what legs are still available?
There are only eight charter legs available on the 2019 Mother Goose Flotilla. Our advice is that if you want to go, you should call NW Explorations TODAY.
Here are the 2019 charter legs available and their costs:
Leg #1 May 9 to May 30 – Bellingham to Ketchikan
Bonum Vitae – 52’ Grand Banks MY – sleeps 5 -- $24,500
Patos – 46 Grand Banks Classic – sleeps 6 -- $18,500
Leg #2 May 31 to June 10 – Ketchikan to Sitka
Arctic Star – 46’ Grand Banks Classic – sleeps 4 -- $16,500
Discovery –46’ Grand Banks Classic – sleeps 4 -- $15,000
Grand Adventure – 42 Grand Banks MY – sleeps 6 -- $14,000
Leg #6 July 10 to July 22 – Skagway to Juneau
Discovery – 46 Grand Banks Classic – sleeps 4 -- $17,000
Grand Adventure – 42 Grand Banks MY – sleeps 6 -- $16,000
Leg #8 August 5 to August 27 – Ketchikan to Bellingham
Bonum Vitae – 52’ Grand Banks MY – sleeps 5 -- $31,000
NW Explorations Contact:
www.nwexplorations.com
Toll-Free: 800-826-1430
Local: 360-676-1248
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