Passage to Attu, Alaska

We had what looked like a good weather window so we departed Japan. We initially had calm weather and had to motor a few hours as we rounded the northern most point of Japan

We than had a nice downwind sail through the Sea of Okhotsk to the northern most International passage through the Kuril Islands. After 5 days we passed through into the Pacific Ocean. We were very careful to stay in the center of the channel and not enter Russian waters. This brought us by the southern tip of Kamchatka ( the game of Risk really does teach geography!).

Friends of ours passed through here 2 days ahead of us and had a beautiful photo of the rugged Kuril Islands. So I took one too as we passed by in the same spot. I’m sure you can imagine some beautiful scenery beyond the fog!

On entering the North Pacific we were greeted by some dolphin, welcoming us, or so I tell myself

We were worried about the weather on the passage but it was actually uneventful. We never had real high winds or rough seas. We did have to motor about 23% of the time though due to lack of wind. We did have a lot of fog as Noelle is pointing out on one of our rare sunny days and a lot of cold. The temp ranged from mid 40’s to high 30’s every day

Just as it became light in the morning after 11 1/2 days we approached Attu. Attu is the western most land of the United States. An uninhabited “rugged and inhospitable place” Much closer to Russia than mainland Alaska.