Wildlife

Catalyst and Westward were nearly fully booked for the entire 2021 Alaska season, which helped us rise from the almost universally negative financial impact due to Covid-19. It felt good to be able to pay back a good bit of the loans taken out to survive 2020. There was also enough left to replace Catalyst’s…

I was lying in my bunk with my head next to an open porthole, listening to the dawn. I had yet to open my eyes. The quiet darkness had been filled with the tiny murmurs of a large school of sardines sheltering beneath Westward’s wooden hull. The wet scurrying sounds of the fish had been…

  Lisa and I looked at many Alaskan trips over a four year period, but the strong recommendation from our friend Suzie made the Catalyst a clear YES. We roped in some friends and kept our fingers crossed. From the first cheerful confirmation text from Hans until the teary goodbye with bags in hand, the…

Surpassed Expectations: Sitka to Petersburg on M/V Westward A Guest’s Review on TripAdvisor I’m chuckling as I write this. I just took a look at a mailing from one of those mega cruise lines in which they describe their Alaska and Inside Passage cruise for 930 people. No, thank you. I grew up in a…