The Lost Viking is currently in Homer Alaska for the winter. While sailing around looking for a place to park, Captain Doug caught this 134 lb. Halibet.....fish fry anyone?

Talked to Doug for a while today. They're passing Glacier Bay now, and said its all very scenic. They saw about 20 whales today, all were blowing water through their blowholes the whole time! Their weather forecast looks great for the next 5 days while traveling up to Seward. I asked if they were doing overnighters along the way, then he said that the sun sets at 10 pm and rises at 3:30 am, their only worry during night watch is for floating icebergs.

Yesterday, one of Brads & Ben's chores was to travel out on the dingy to chip ice off of an iceberg for the cooler. While they were told to stay away from the blue 'berg, they decided to go for it anyways. Soon as Brad jumped onto it, he learned that glacier ice has neutral bouyancy. They become blue & neutral bouyant from hundreds of years of oxygen escaping. Thank goodness he's quick on his feet and jumped off in time as the iceberg started to spin!!

The Lost Viking and crew are in Petersburg, Alaska; just south of Juneau. They've got about 2 days left of inland passage before they pass Glacier Bay, and travel up to Seward or Whittier.
They had a good time in Petersburg, allot of Norwegians live there and got a kick out of the boat name. They saw 4 big whales today and the weathers been great. wind at about 4-10 kts.

It's been a bit chilly, the down comforters came out from storage, and the temp has been hovering in the 50's. The crew had company again yesterday, a pod of 5 orkas, two were calves. They spent some days at Prince Ruepert Island waiting on weather, but made Ketchikan late afternoon today. Linda will be catching up to them there tomorrow. Then it's on to Whittier or Seward. The crew will be coming home for a break from Anchorage near the end of the month. Can't miss the 4th of July open house at Lida's! They will be full of stories and lots of photos to share with those of you who can make it.

After doing repairs and the new crew arrived, The Lost Viking set sail straight for Victoria. Some of the crew spent Saturday touring the famous gardens there. Since then they have been under sail days and anchoring or stopping at marinas at night.

There are thousands of islands in the area they are currently sailing and the route is through the channels between the islands. Small towns inhabit these islands, with ferry service between them. The main industry is logging, and the boat has been meeting tugs pulling barges and log boomers. The logging economy has been hit hard. One town's population has gone from 30,000 to 15,000 almost overnight.

The temp has been 60's-70's, the cameras have been going steady with the great scenery, snow on the mountains, whale sightings (should be seeing orkas now) etc. But Bob hasn't found a Hooters since leaving S.F.

Last night the Viking crew decided to pass Columbia River and headed further north to Grays Harbor, where they will make repairs. Joel will head to Seattle to catch a flight, and Debbie, Kevin, John and Ben will be flying in tomorrow. They may need to wait out another storm system due to hit on Wednesday. Plans are never set in stone on a sailing trip.