The original people of Martha’s Vineyard included the Native American Wampanoags, immigrants from England and the Cape Verde islands, people of color, farmers and fishermen, blacksmiths and merchants. Learn their stories and you will come to know the Island.

The earth here tells the story erased elsewhere in New England. The Aquinnah cliffs lay bare to geologists the history of the past hundred million years. Traveling the South Road to Aquinnah, one goes over low hills and valleys cut by streams that ran off melting glaciers at the end of the Ice Age. The first humans probably came here before the Vineyard was an island. It is thought that they arrived after the ice was gone, but before the melting glaciers in the north raised the sea level enough to separate Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket from the mainland. Native American camps that carbon-date to 2270 B.C. have been uncovered on the Island. The Wampanoag people have lived for thousands of years on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.

“Wampanoag” means “People of the First Light.” Before Bartholomew Gosnold renamed the island Martha’s Vineyard in 1602, it was called Noepe by the Wampanoag, meaning “land amid the waters.” Many Wampanoag still live on aboriginal lands on the southwestern end of the Island, a 3,400-acre peninsula called Aquinnah. At present, there are over 900 members listed on the Tribal rolls. Of these, approximately 300 reside on Martha’s Vineyard.

San Juan Islands Cruising

Two Week Sample Itinerary

San Juan Islands - Desolation Island Cruise

Day 1 - Bedwell Harbor. Clear Customs on South Pender Island after a sail across Bellingham Bay and up Hale Pass; perhaps lunch at Sucia. (33 NM)

Day 2 - Nanaimo. Northwest up Trincomali Channel, through the Gulf Islands; pass Dodd Narrows at flood or slack tide. (41 NM)

Day 3 - Pender Harbor. Across the Strait of Georgia to the mainland, with lunch at mysterious Smuggler's Cove. Overnight at peaceful Pender Harbor. (34 NM)

Day 4 - Princess Louisa Inlet. Turn right up Agamemnon Channel, Prince of Wales and Princess Royal Reaches, through the Malibu Rapids. Anchor beneath Chatterbox Falls. (44 NM)

Day 5 - Pender Harbor. Back through the magnificent fjords to Pender Harbor. (44 NM)

Day 6 - Lund. Texada Island to port and BC's Sunshine Coast to starboard, you run up Malaspina Strait, get fresh shrimp in Westview, and dock at Desolation's door. (36 NM)

Day 7 - Squirrel Cove. Wriggle up Thulin Passage with the scenic Copeland Islands cluster to port. Continue north to Refuge Cove, then west to this oyster-laden cove. (13 NM)

Day 8 - Tenedos Bay. Get warm cinnamon rolls at the cabin, then sail east. Tuck around the corner of the tiny island and climb the cascading stream to the lake. (7 NM)

Day 9 - Prideaux Haven. Zip around the corner, drop anchor in any of the scenic inlets. (5 NM)

Day 10 - Blubber Bay. Play on Savary Island's sandy beaches before anchoring in Texada's northern bay. (27 NM)

Day 11 - Schooner Cove. Up early to voyage south to this marina on Vancouver Island, cruising west of Texada; lunch in the warm turquoise waters and white sands of Hornby Island. (42 NM)

Day 12 - Ganges. Cruise the northern edge of the Gulf Islands; duck through Porlier Pass (on ebb or slack), down the channel, and into this artist town on Saltspring Island. (45 NM)

Day 13 - Cypress Island. Back into US waters to clear customs at Friday Harbor, then through the San Juans to a state park buoy on the northeast shore. (43 NM)

Day 14 - Bellingham. A short cruise across Bellingham Bay while savoring the memories...until next year! (13 NM)

Gulf Islands Cruising

One Week Sample Itinerary

Day 1 - Sucia Island once again beckons with favorite anchorages and trails Jp ashore. (18 NM)

Day 2 - Poet's Cove (Bedwell Harbor, S. Pender Isl.) or Ganges (Salt Spring Isl.) West across Boundary Pass, watching porpoise and Orca. Clear Customs at Bedwell Harbor on South Pender Island ...perhaps stay at Pet's Cove resort in Bedwell Harbor (15 NM, 1-888-512-7638). Or anchor in one of the pristine finger coves on nearby Prevost Island. (26 NM total). OR, head all the way to the artisan's favorite port-of-call, Ganges on Saltspring Island (30 NM total)

Day 3 - Telegraph Harbor. Its lunch at Montague Harbor Provincial Marine Park on Galiano Island, then up the Trincomali Channel to dip beneath Kuper Island. (20 NM from Ganges). Choice of anchorage, Thetis Island Marina (1-250-246-3464), or Telegraph Harbour Marina (1-800-246-6011).

Day 4 - Sydney. South through Sansum Narrows between Saltspring and Vancouver Islands to dock among hanging flowers at the Port Sidney Marina. (27 NM, 1-250-655-3711)

Day 5 - Roche Harbor or Parks Bay. Float with Killer Whales across Haro Strait; clear Customs at Roche Harbor (14 NM, 1-360-378-2155) and stay at the marina or anchor in the protected bay off the resort. Another option is to head east through Speiden channel and down through San Juan Channel to anchor in idyllic Parks Bay on Shaw Island. Then anchor in this idyllic Shaw Island bay. (22 NM total)

Day 6 - Pleasant Bay. Meander through the central San Juans; lunch at Obstruction Pass State Park; anchor in this protected bay a few miles south of Bellingham. (21 NM from Parks Bay, 31NM from Roche Harbor)

Day 7 - Bellingham. We greet you at the docks after your two hour sail. Before every stop this week you could have turned right, or left, and explored yet another fascinating cove. (9 NM)

Video of the landscape ~

Squaxin Island, WA - Reserved Land for Exploring

Poulsbo, WA - Former Submarine Base

The Puget Sound is the premier ground for cruising and exploring.

Experience spectacular halibut, salmon, rock fish and cod fishing in these protected waters.

Unlike the multitude of on-shore lodging options, your charter provides the unique experience of living aboard the boat your entire trip! Not having to return to a base camp every night, our boats have the ability to explore remote areas where few other fishermen have the opportunity to cast their line! Your Puget Sound trip will be a remarkable experience you will always remember.   

 Drop your crab pot and catch dinner!

The Puget Sound region is home to the majority of Washington State citizens who live in the bustling cities and suburbs that extend north to south from Stan-wood to Olympia. Most Puget Sound communities lie on either side of the north-south Interstate 5 corridor that serves as the major traffic thoroughfare of the state.

Puget Sound itself is a body of water lying east of Admiralty Inlet, through which ocean waters reach inland some 50 miles from the Pacific Coast to provide all-weather ports for ocean-going ships at Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia. The waterway is a complex and intricate system of channels, inlets, estuaries, embankment’’s and islands.

Common usage has broadened the Sound's description to include the surrounding lowlands extending east to the Cascade Mountains and the various cities and towns lying therein. Such usage also includes Whidbey, Camano, and Fidalgo islands as well as the Kitsap Peninsula.

Outside Admiralty Inlet and beyond Whidbey Island to the north, lie the popular San Juan Islands between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia. This small group of islands is a favorite playground and weekend get-away destination for residents of the region and their northern neighbors in British Columbia, Canada.

The Head Waters Low Tide

Video of the landscape

COLUMBIA RIVER

The Columbia River, fourth-largest by volume in North America (annual average of 192 million acre-feet at the mouth) begins at Columbia Lake in the Rocky Mountain Trench of southeastern British Columbia at about 2,656 feet above sea level. The geographic coordinates at the head of the lake are 50°13’ north latitude, 115°51 west longitude.

The river flows north for some 200 miles (322 kilometers) and then turns south and flows for about 270 miles (434 kilometers) before crossing the border into Washington at River Mile 749, that is, 749 miles (1,205 kilometers) inland from the Pacific Ocean. More precisely, according to the BC Freshwater Atlas, the Columbia River in British Columbia is 760.356 kilometers long (472.463 miles).

For its first approximately 150 miles (241 kilometers) in the United States, the Columbia forms the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam. The river then bends west, south and east through central Washington, turns south and then west, and forms the border between Oregon and Washington to the Pacific Ocean. The mouth of the river is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Astoria, Oregon. The geographic coordinates at the mouth (near Cape Disappointment, Washington) are 124.09344 west longitude, 46.246922 north latitude (these are the coordinates the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cites as River Mile Zero). The total length of the river is about 1,243 miles (about 2,000 kilometers). The drainage basin covers 259,000 square miles (670,810 square kilometers), approximately the size of France, drains portions of seven states and British Columbia, and covers three degrees of latitude and nine degrees of longitude

The Inside Passage is the premier ground for your Alaska fishing trip!

Experience spectacular halibut, salmon, rockfish and cod fishing in the protected waters of Alaska's Inside Passage.

Unlike the multitude of on-shore Alaska fishing lodge options, an Alaska Charter Fishing vessel provides the unique experience of living aboard the yacht your entire trip! Not having to return to a base camp every night, the Dream Maker has the ability to explore remote areas where few other fishermen have the opportunity to cast his/her line! Your Alaska fishing trip will be a remarkable experience you will always remember.   

Drop your crab pot and catch dinner!

Hear the roar as gigantic chunks of ice calve off glaciers in Glacier Bay or Tracy Arm.

Chip a bit of ice from a berg and serve it with your scotch during happy hour.

Watch black bears or coastal brown bears (a grizzly, but bigger!) dig for clams, fish for salmon, and munch on the sedges.

Visit a remote lodge and enjoy world-class fishing for salmon, lingcod and halibut.

Watch a family of sea otters share a meal of octopus.

Hike through the temperate rain forests. You’ve never seen green like this!

Learn to interpret Native American totem poles.

Spy on nesting puffins or watch as they fish and feed their young.

Discover the rich Tlingit and Russian American history and culture of Sitka.

Walk the Perseverance Trail and visit the Last Chance Mining Museum in Juneau to learn about the history of the Gold Rush.

Hike a dormant volcano… Mt. Edgecumbe (near Sitka).

See who can spot the most eagles. Extra points if he’s just caught a fish!

Be amazed by the spectacle of bubble-net feeding Humpback whales. You may want to hold your nose though...they have fish breath!

Explore Ketchikan’s colorful Creek Street, following the footsteps of historic madams in this famous old “red light district”.