Alaska & the Inside Passage
Tidewater glaciers calve half a mile off the foredeck, humpbacks feed beside the tender, and the nearest crowd is a permit system away.
The Inside Passage is what charter looked like before charter: a thousand-mile lattice of sheltered water threaded between the Coast Mountains and the open Pacific, where the evening entertainment is a glacier dropping office-blocks of ice into your anchorage. Juneau — a state capital with no road in — is the hub; from there it is a short run to Tracy Arm's twin Sawyer glaciers, the brown-bear flats of Admiralty Island and the humpback grounds of Frederick Sound. Glacier Bay, the crown, admits just twenty-five private vessels a day in season. This is the rare place where a yacht is not a way of arriving — it is close to the only way in.
“We watched a glacier calve at breakfast and never saw another boat all day.”
The gallery
Signature anchorages
Tracy Arm's twin glaciers calve into the fjord, brown bears fish the Pack Creek flats, and humpbacks bubble-net feed — corralling herring inside rings of bubbles — in Frederick Sound: the Americas' wildest charter water, and among its least crowded.
- Reid Inlet, Glacier BayA favourite overnight inside the park — a small bight with its own tidewater glacier at its head, deep inside waters that admit only twenty-five private vessels a day.
- Tracy Arm Cove, Holkham BayThe staging anchorage for the Sawyer glaciers — well protected behind its bar, with icebergs grounding and refloating past the swim platform on every tide.
- Ford's Terror, Endicott ArmA granite hideaway entered through a tidal gate at slack water (the brief lull between tides when the current stops) — named for the naval oarsman trapped six hours by the rip — and utterly still once inside.
- Red Bluff Bay, Baranof IslandChromite-red cliffs at the entrance, a waterfall at the head and flat-calm water for the toys; brown bears fish the salmon stream in August.
- Warm Springs Bay, Baranof IslandAnchor beside a thirty-metre waterfall and walk the boardwalk to natural hot-spring baths — nine springs, up to 48°C — with views down Chatham Strait.
- Cannery Cove, Pybus BayA mountain-ringed, calm anchorage on Admiralty Island, with Dungeness crab in the pots and some of the island's 1,500 brown bears working the meadows.
The scene
Celebration, Juneau
The largest gathering of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples — up to 2,000 dancers converge on the capital every second June; the 2026 edition, themed Enduring Strength, ran 3–6 June.
Sitka Music Festival
Alaska's premier chamber-music series fills Sitka each June — the 55th season ran 1–28 June 2026, complete with a classical-music cruise and a community crab feed.
Golden North Salmon Derby
Juneau's three-day king-and-coho hunt, run by Territorial Sportsmen since 1947; the 80th edition runs 7–9 August 2026.
Little Norway Festival, Petersburg
The fishing town settled by Norwegians throws its Syttende Mai party every mid-May; the 68th edition ran 15–17 May 2026 around Norway's Constitution Day.
John Muir's Glacier Bay
Muir came up the Inside Passage by Tlingit dugout canoe in 1879, chasing reports of an 'ice-mountain' — his dispatches, later in The Century Magazine, made Glacier Bay famous.
Table & stay ashore
In Bocca al Lupo, Juneau
Beau Schooler's wood-fired Italian-Alaskan — handmade pasta, wild salmon — named one of The New York Times' 50 best restaurants in America in 2023; Schooler is a six-time James Beard nominee.
Tracy's King Crab Shack, Juneau
Bering Sea king crab cracked at communal dockside tables since 2006 — a Food & Wine and Condé Nast Traveler favourite, steps from the tender dock.
Ludvig's Bistro, Sitka
Mediterranean technique on seafood straight off Sitka's boats — the town's bistro of record, tucked along the waterfront.
Pearson's Pond Luxury Inn & Adventure Spa, Juneau
Alaska's only AAA Four Diamond resort, hidden in rainforest minutes from the Mendenhall Glacier — the pre-charter night, sorted.
Baranof Wilderness Lodge, Warm Springs Bay
A fly-in lodge on Baranof Island's east coast, reached by floatplane from Sitka — fishing, whales and the hot springs at the door.
A week, sketched
Juneau
Board at Auke Bay's Statter Harbor, then take the helicopter up to the Juneau Icefield while the crew slips the lines.
Tracy Arm
Forty miles south the fjord narrows to the twin Sawyer glaciers; hold station as the ice calves, then anchor in Tracy Arm Cove among the bergs.
Endicott Arm & Ford's Terror
Run the iceberg lane to Dawes Glacier, before slipping through the tidal gate into Ford's Terror at slack water for the quietest night of the season.
Admiralty Island
Tender in for permitted brown-bear viewing on the Pack Creek flats, then round to Cannery Cove in Pybus Bay and drop the crab pots at dusk.
Frederick Sound & Warm Springs
The summer humpback grounds — bubble-net feeding, breaches off the bow — before a soak in the hot-spring baths at Baranof Warm Springs.
Red Bluff Bay & Peril Strait
A waterfall anchorage under chromite-red cliffs, then thread Peril Strait towards the outer coast.
Sitka
Russian cathedral, Tlingit history and one of Alaska's prettiest small-boat harbours; disembark by jet from SIT.
The quiet week
A round trip that never strays far from Juneau — fewer anchorages, longer stops, and no one-way disembarkation to plan around.
Juneau
Board at Statter Harbor in Auke Bay and settle in slowly — no early start north, just a first night at anchor in home water.
Tracy Arm
The twin Sawyer glaciers calve close enough to hear from the foredeck; anchor in Tracy Arm Cove among the bergs, with nowhere else on the plan today.
Admiralty Island
Pack Creek's brown-bear flats, permit-capped at 24 visitors a day, reward patience rather than a quick look; end the day at Cannery Cove in Pybus Bay, crab pots down before dark among some of the island's 1,500 bears.
Frederick Sound
Cut the engines and wait: bubble-net feeding humpbacks work the Sound through the afternoon, best watched from the swim platform.
Warm Springs Bay
A full day under the waterfall: the boardwalk to the hot-spring baths — nine springs, up to 48°C — with views down Chatham Strait, and nothing else on the schedule.
Juneau
Retrace the route north through the same home waters and disembark where you boarded — a week spent inside one familiar stretch of the Passage.
The crown route
Glacier Bay is the crown of the Passage — this longer run goes to collect it, permit applied for months ahead.
Juneau
Board at Statter Harbor in Auke Bay; the run to Glacier Bay is the longest leg of the week, so provision heavy and slip lines by early afternoon.
Glacier Bay — Reid Inlet
Enter the park on its permit — 25 vessels admitted a day between June and August — and anchor at Reid Inlet, beneath a tidewater glacier of its own.
Glacier Bay — Tarr Inlet
Hold station off the blue face of Margerie Glacier at the head of Tarr Inlet before turning south again for open water.
Admiralty Island
South down Chatham Strait to Pack Creek for the bear flats, continuing to Cannery Cove in Pybus Bay to set pots before the light goes.
Frederick Sound
Humpbacks bubble-net feed here in high summer, corralling herring inside rings of bubbles before breaching clear of the water.
Red Bluff Bay
Chromite-red cliffs mark the entrance, a waterfall stands at the head, and in August bears work the salmon stream.
Warm Springs Bay
Anchor beside the thirty-metre waterfall and walk the boardwalk to the hot-spring baths — nine springs, up to 48°C — before the last leg south.
Sitka
Peril Strait brings you out to Sitka, Mount Edgecumbe standing over the harbour; a last dinner at Ludvig's Bistro before disembarking by jet from SIT.
Pair with
Plan this water
Alaska & the Inside Passage
Tidewater glaciers, brown bears and bubble-netting humpbacks in a thousand miles of sheltered fjord — the Americas' wildest charter water, entered on permits.
The year, measured
Monthly means at the heart of this water — daily maxima averaged, wind as mean daily peak.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air, day °C | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 18 | 15 | 9 | 5 | 2 |
| Sea °C | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 16 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 5 |
| Wind, peak kt | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 12 |
ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo · 2019–2023 means · sea temperature 2022–2023
The yachts that run these waters
Profiles from the record — introductions via the harbour desk.
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