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I was landing my PA-20 (Piper Pacer) on a beach north of Kivalina 20 some years ago, when I hit a dead walrus on the beach flipping the plane up on its nose. I walked into Kivalina and called a friend in Kotzebue to bring me a new propeller (if you thought dinged boat props were expensive, I...

It's possible to make the gulf crossing in a C-Dory, certainly, but there is a very real element of risk. When I made the crossing before, it was in a 38-foot diesel powered full displacement commercial fishing boat. As much as I love my C-dory, that fishing boat inspired a little bit more...

Dan: You like names with C-Something. You like Dogon. You like Juan Valdez. How about this: C-Dog-on-Juan Valdez Covers all the bases. Jim

Juan Valdez. You must drink a lot of coffee. The pronunciation of the PWS Valdez is wrong, though. Speaking of pronunciation, I presume you pronounce Dogon like dog-on. There is a tribe here in West Africa called the Dogon, but it is pronounced like doe gone, so that’s what always pops in my...

I'm fairly prone to seasickness. I've tried the patch, Dramamine and meclizine. All work to a more or less degree, but they all cause side effects. Last year I tried the electronic watch device (relief band) for the first time. It really worked for me. Advantages: It helps even if you...

I didn't start out to get a boat. I wasn't even thinking about having a boat. I currently live in Niamey, Niger, on the edge of the Sahara Desert. Niger is a landlocked country a thousand kilometers from the ocean. Niamey isn't a very developed city, as national capitols go. On the street...

One more thing: About the idea of using night vision goggles. In the summer time in Alaska, daylight hours are long. Unless you are planning on cruising way past most peoples bedtime, you probably won't have much use for the night vision goggles. Jim

Lots of good advise above. A couple of other thoughts. 1) Although a passport isn't required for travel to Canada, I understand that, especially reentering the US, they want to see either the passport, or a birth certificate AND a government issued photo ID (i.e., a drivers license). I...

I now carry electrical tape with me just about everywhere I go (see jury rig thread). Jim

I hesitate to tell this story, because it makes me look like an idiot (but then again, I am an idiot, so here goes). Back in about 1982, my dad had a 36-foot diesel powered fishing boat that was fresh water cooled via a keel cooler. We kept the boat in Seldovia over the winter, and took it up...

The Volvo AQ-175 with 280 stern drive is a 170 hp V-6 (gasoline) engine, which I think should be pretty good power for a 27 if it is in good shape. Here is a link to technical specifications on older Volvo-penta engines: http://www.volvo.com/volvopenta/na/en-u ... terndrive/ The 27...

My early experience piloting boats was in a commercial fishing boat in Cook Inlet Alaska. This was in the late '70s, early '80s, and our 35 foot inboard diesel boat didn't have either radar or loran (there wasn't any such thing as GPS back then). I navigated by "pilotage" (i.e., map, compass...

Long distance dog musher’s in Alaska have a similar problem, and have devised an elegant solution. Dog musher’s stand on the runners of the sled, and have to be able to shift their weight for steering and balance. You can imagine how tiring this would be over the course of a multi-day race...

I lived in Nairobi for 3 years, and made it down to the coast a couple of times. Beautiful area. Really makes you wish you could bring your C-Dory! I must have just taken I ride on the "ordinary dhow", though. I remember paying considerably less than $1,500 a day. Jim

I use a Bombard AX3, which I like. It's 8'6" and weighs about 35 lbs. There are two models available, one with a slated plywood floor, and the other (which I have) is called the "aerotech" floor, which is a high pressure inflatable floor. I think it's a lighter, more compact package with the...

Do you mean defrost, or defog? For frost, you need a window scraper to go out and scrape the frost off of the window, and perhaps heat to keep it from reaccumulating. For fogged windows (much more common), just moving air over the inside of the window usually does the trick. I have a 12 volt...

Redfox has a carrier, but it isn't mounted on the cabin roof; he has it on some kind of bracket over the transom. You can see lots of pictures of it in his photo album

Check out Tolman Alaskan Skiffs (do a google search). They have a dory hull, and look a lot like a C-dory, but I've seen them with a center consol configuration. The down side is that they aren't being manufactured - they are home built from plans. There are some custom manufacturers building...

I once had a friend tell me about a black bear trying to board a skiff she was riding in on the Yukon river (near Tanana Alaska). The idiot driving the skiff kept buzzing it, and the bear several times got his paws over the gunnel and tried to crawl over the side. One of the passengers in the...

I love the boat. I've only been able to spend a week on it due to the long commute (boat is on Whidbey Island, I'm in Africa), but, with the exception of crossing the Haro Strait in a gale (where I got to test the effectiveness of the reliefband), it was absolutely fabulous. I'll spend most of...