At 2pm yesterday I easily guided Osprey into her slip at Shilshole Marina, which I'd left 75 days earlier. Thus ended my mostly solo sailboat trip from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska, and back.

After docking, I collected my several piles of less-than-clean clothes into a single bag (my last laundromat visit was in Petersburg, AK), did a bit of cleaning (I'm actually pretty good I keeping up with domestic chores, so the cleaning didn't take too long), and was visited by friends Julia and Matt, along with Shawn and Eric. I saw no point in rushing to the house, so I stayed aboard Osprey last night. This morning after breakfast I walked the 7 1/2 miles from the marina to my house...it was a nice morning and I wanted the exercise, so I decided against taking the bus or accepting offers of a car ride. The house appeared in good shape, apart from some overgrown shrubbery that I'll start tackling tomorrow. The car started up without a problem, but was dusty enough that my first stop was the car wash. Then I drove to the boat, collected my dirty clothes, and took them back to the house to wash. Tonight will be my last on the boat, so tomorrow the food and the rest of my clothes will be getting a car ride to the house.

I traveled 2147 nautical miles in 76 days. I traveled on 53 of those days and remained in port for 23 days, usually to wait for better weather.

Of those 2147 miles, I motored 2061 miles and sailed 86 miles, or 4 percent of the distance.

I ran the engine for a total of 361.4 hours and burned 315 gallons of diesel fuel, or .87 gallons per hour.

This was a great trip, and I'm really happy that I did it. The high point for me was approaching the glaciers in Tracy Arm, with Eric and Shawn pushing chunks of ice out of the way so we could get a closer look.

On the other hand, I don't think I'll do the trip again in the same way. Mainly, I don't think a 35-foot sailboat is the best choice for an Alaskan cruise. Traveling the great distances involved at sailboat speeds makes for a lot of long days, many of them in chilly, rain-in-your- face weather. Some sailboat owners in this region have entirely surrounded their cockpits with canvas enclosures, going far beyond the dodger and bimini that I have on Osprey.

While that is one solution to keeping the helmsperson warmer and dry, it seems to me that one might as well move to a power boat with well-constructed, enclosed helm station. Given the small percentage of time that a sailboat can actually sail on this trip, the point of having a mast and sails is almost entirely lost. So when I go to Alaska again, it will be in a power boat.

I'm hardly the first person to come to this conclusion. Lots of former sailors have moved to power boats when deciding they'd like to explore Alaska. One sees fewer and fewer sailboats, compared to the number of power boats, the further north one goes beyond Desolation Sound, which is midway up the coast of Vancouver Island.

On the other hand, I have no interest in the unnecessarily massive 50, 60, 70-foot and larger motor yachts that constitute a large percentage of the boats cruising Alaskan waters, frequently crewed by only a retired couple. Alaskan cruising can easily and comfortably be done in much smaller boats. My requirements for an Alaskan cruiser would be a boat that motors economically at displacement speeds, has dependable cabin heat, a galley with propane oven, has comfortable (not opulent or house-sized) sleeping accommodations for 4 people, is easily handled for docking and anchoring, and has limited electrical systems that do not require frequent running of a generator.

In conclusion, this was a great trip that, next time, I'll do a bit differently. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the waters of Washington State and British Columbia.