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The following itinerary is typical, but your particular
cruise may be different. The vessel routes change due to
the vagaries of weather or the spontaneous interests of
guests. Fly fishers should note that this is not a dedicated fly-fishing trip similar to programs at Orvis-endorsed fishing lodges elsewhere. Guests may anticipate several fishing opportunities during the course of a cruise, but there will be some days when other activities such as whale-watching or glacier viewing take center stage. Vessels carry limited fly fishing gear, so serious anglers should bring their own.

SATURDAY – Arrive Sitka
Sitka is a remote fishing community located southwest of Juneau on
Baranof Island, easily reached by scheduled commercial jet service.
Arrive on one of several flights per day and check into the Sitka
Westmark Hotel. Enjoy exploring the quaint town, and at dinnertime try a local seafood delicacy in the hotel dining room. Your hotel and meals are included in your charter.

SUNDAY – Board ship, cruise to Sukoi Inlet
After breakfast, spend the morning sight seeing around town before being picked up at your hotel by vessel crew members and transported to the dock for an early afternoon departure. The ship gets under way by 3:00 PM and heads to its first night's anchorage in scenic Sukoi Inlet on Kruzof Island. Bald eagles and Steller sea lions are a common sight when leaving Sitka Harbor. After a short cruise and an exquisite first-night's dinner on board, you visit with old and new friends in the ship's comfortable salon or maybe take a guided "underground tour" of galley and engine room. If you haven't already done so, don't forget to take a few minutes this evening to buy a fishing license from your Captain.

MONDAY – Salisbury Sound & Peril Strait
Not far from the night's anchorage is a popular saltwater sportfishing area, Salisbury Sound, where an
all-morning salmon trolling trip aboard one of the ship's sturdy skiffs may be of interest to the angling enthusiast. Halibut are common hereabouts, as well. Guests can take fish home at the end of a trip. Crew can custom-process your catch, vacuum pack and freeze it on board, and advise you on the best methods
for shipment. Alternatively, the ship's Chef is happy to prepare your catch for dinner and share recipes. If fishing doesn't interest you, join in a skiff tour along the rocky shoreline to spot sea otters in company with an on-board Naturalist who will share insights into the natural history of this region. We are in the heart of a coastal Alaskan wilderness so we'll keep a lookout for brown bears, often seen grazing on lush beach grasses throughout summer…easy to spot from a skiff. By lunchtime, we return to the ship to haul anchor and head through Sergius Narrows into Peril Strait. We cruise until dinnertime, when we find ourselves anchored in Saook Bay, another scenic Southeast Alaska harbor. After dinner, your crew can launch kayaks and you may paddle quietly around the anchorage savoring the wonder of your first full day in the wilds of Alaska.

TUESDAY – Paradise Flats & Kelp Bay
The stream at the head of Saook Bay flows through a broad grassy beach estuary called, appropriately, Paradise Flats. This place is heaven for fly fishers. We spend the morning here casting for Dolly Varden char and Cutthroat trout (or, later in the season, pink salmon) and then haul anchor after lunch and head along the coast of Baranof Island into the broad sheltered waters of Chatham Strait. During this afternoon's cruise we will likely spot Humpback whales, Dalls porpoises, Stellar sea lions and maybe, if we're lucky, Orcas. Our shipboard Naturalist will be happy to give a presentation while under way on the marine mammals we typically encounter on a cruise. On the way to Kelp Bay we sometimes stop and jig for halibut off Morris Reef – a 247-pounder was landed here on one of our cruises – or take a quick detour to hike up to Lake Eva where you can visit a grove of Sitka Spruce trees that are among the tallest and largest-girthed in the Tongass National Forest.. There are choices of activities every day, and the ship's crew to guest ratio is such that guests can go off in small groups with a knowledgeable staff member to explore according to their interests. Small groups also have less of an impact on the fragile, temperate rainforests environment of the Tongass National Forest.

WEDNESDAY – Red Bluff & Pybus Bays – Admiralty Island
Early risers can go kayaking before breakfast with a guide, where you may see harbor seals and harlequin ducks. Both have little fear of kayakers on the water. Photographers love these outings. Later, motoring south on the ship, we cruise along the "waterfall coast" of Baranof Island - one of the most scenic coastal wilderness areas in southeast Alaska. Glaciers form in high snowfields on the island, and in summer their melting waters gather to flow in noisy cascades, tumbling off cliffs and creating a spectacle of lofty cataracts everywhere you look. When we get to Red Bluff Bay, we'll divide the ship's company into several groups to go ashore. Some may choose to fly fish in the river at the head of the bay. But the highlight of this place is the short but steep hike up onto the brick red bluffs, which give this place its name. Here, wildflowers are dense in summer, and the natural rock gardens are resplendent with splashy displays of blue and yellow violets, columbine and fragrant meadow orchids. After our hike, we return to the ship again and haul anchor, bound for Pybus Bay on Admiralty Island where we'll spend the night. The local Tlingit tribe's name for Admiralty Island is Kootznoowoo, which means "fortress of the bears."

THURSDAY – Admiralty & Brothers Islands
Today is our final opportunity for hiking and fishing, and we've saved some of the best of both for last. We
pack lunches and head out in the skiffs right after breakfast. Brothers Islands, lying just off the mouth of Pybus Bay, are notable for their unique mossy terrain. A gentle walk through the lush rainforest on one of these small islands leads us to a wild stretch of rocky beach. Great numbers of Stellar sea lions will sometimes haul out onto some of these beaches, and if we're careful we can approach these noisy "rookeries" by skiff without disturbing the sunbathing animals. Halibut fishing in Pybus Bay is often productive, as is fly-fishing or spin casting for Pink salmon or Dolly Varden char in nearby Donkey Creek. Bald eagles perch solemnly in the tree tops waiting for an opportunity to snatch an unwary fish from the water. Bears are common here, and your fishing guides on shore will carry a tackle box under one arm and a shotgun, just in case, under the other.

FRIDAY – Tracy Arm & No-Name Bay
We raise the anchor early today to take in the sights of a glacially carved fiord. Sawyer Glacier originates
between the towering peaks of the Coast Range, and as it slowly moves down steep slopes toward the sea, it gouges a great vertically-sided valley through which shattered rock and great masses of ice continually flow. The glacier terminates in the waters of Tracy Arm, and our objective is to navigate the twenty-five mile deep inlet, avoiding a maze of floating icebergs, to reach the face of the glacier where great chunks of ice, some the size of our ship, crash in a frenzy of foam and spray into the ocean. Harbor seals find abundant food in the nutrient-rich waters of this inlet, and for a period of time in the summer female seals will haul-out onto floating bergs here to give birth to their young. Late in the day, we anchor in No-Name Bay and enjoy our last dinner together onboard in this quiet, secluded and scenic cove.

SATURDAY – Juneau, disembark ship
We arise early and take breakfast under way, with ancient and untouched spruce and hemlock forests marching past our ship's wake as we make way back to civilization. By 9:00 AM we are tied to the dock in downtown Juneau, where you disembark and are transported by crew to your hotel or to the airport in time for flights home.

For Juneau to Sitka, simply reverse the itinerary.