Skipjack Owners' Log

Meet Jim and Helen...
Jim is a retired electronics engineer; Helen a retired school teacher. They have cruised the Florida Keys, Dry Tortugas, California, Canada and Alaska aboard their Skipjack 26. Recently they purchased a Skipjack 30 which is bound for the Pacific Northwest and a five month cruise to Glacier Bay, Alaska.

Built for extended comfortable cruising...
"Helen and I trailered our 26’ Skipjack Sea Fox 1270 miles from our home in California to Anacortes, Washington. We cruised the Inside Passage through British Columbia and up to Juneau, Alaska. We saw wildlife on land, sea and air. The glaciers we visited awed us. We dodged big icebergs and put small ones in our ice chest. In the course of the trip Helen identified 85 bird species, and I caught Halibut, Ling Cod, Yellow Eye and King Salmon. We had been gone 77 days and had covered over 3,200 miles — we were grateful for our choice of diesel power. We fished, cruised and explored at our pleasure, taking advantage of whatever the scenery had to offer.

We ran the Yuculta Rapids outside Big Bay where a current of 10 knots was running. Given deep water the rapids are fun in Sea Fox. Sometimes we would slow down just to feel spins and let the rapids play with us. Other times we motor through at our usual 25 knots. I have never seen a place like Alaska where the wind is always in your face: Alaskans say, “If the sun shines, the wind blows”. We hit strong North winds (25 knots) and a nasty chop in Stephens Passage. The tugs (our two buddy boats) turned around and went back to Entrance Island. Sea Fox went on to Windham Bay.

Hook-Up!
Outside Chapin Cove we had 30’ of water just off a reef, and when I turned to move offshore a little, the depth dropped to 150’ in a few boat lengths. I decided to fish this steep slope. On the second drift nothing happened... then it felt like I had snagged my lure on the bottom. I pulled hard on the pole but the lure never budged. I was about to tell Helen to back the boat up when “the bottom” started moving and tugging on the line. I said, “Oh my God...”, and the battle began! I’d reel him up, and he’d swim back down. This was the biggest halibut I had ever hooked. After 30 minutes he wasn’t stripping line like before. I told Helen, “I think we’re getting tired”. She asked if I meant myself or the fish... I told her both of us. When I finally got him to the surface we looked with amazement. He looked big and dangerous. Our net was useless; the fish was wider and a lot longer. We tried to lasso his tail but failed. Then Helen had an idea and made a loop around my line with the dock line, dropped it over his head and pushed the loop down over his body with the boat pole... It worked! We had an angry, large Halibut by the tail. It was taller than Helen at 65” in length and weighed at least 130 pounds. “