On June 1^st, we will make our way to Alaska.  We still have a couple weeks open, but we’re almost fully booked. In August we’ve invited an Italian chef who will delight our guests with an Italian culinary-themed trip. Our guest is from central Italy (Milano) and likes to cook with a southern Italian flair.  We are looking forward to lots of seafood cooked Italian style, and of course paired with some good Sicilian red wines. This is the first time we are offering this, and we are looking forward to this new experience.

The new boats have been delivered to Washington and loaded on the Charter boat.  Last minute items are being loaded or being prepared.  We’re installing a new camera system for the engine room and public areas to keep track of everything and everybody.  We’ve purchased some new fishing gear and supplies, so those will be available for use this year.  The boat heads north on June 1^st.  I am looking to catch the boat on the 6^th, and fish as we work our way to Petersburg and Juneau.  Hopefully, a better year for Kings in 2009.

Captain Don

It’s April 1st and we are all getting a little excited about taking the boat north. So far the winter has been mild in Washington and the boat has been buttoned down well. Over the winter we fixed the side door and replaced a couple of view windows that had lost their airtight inner seals.

The surprise, there always are surprises, was having to replace some fuel lines originally installed by the manufacturer. After 10 years, they needed to be changed out. Later this month we will be bringing up the two new launches for the Susan Dawn. We sold the old raft and have added a new 16 foot aluminum boat that will allow us to roam further and closer to where the fish are. It will also allow non-fishing guests more time to hike, explore, and do thing ashore. The new boat has down riggers and we are eager to see if it fishes as well as the big boat.

The second new boat is a smaller Boston Whaler that we can use for setting and retrieving crab traps plus short trips to shore or exploring when we do not want to put the 16 foot boat in the water.

We still have to pull the boat out and put it on the “hard” for a week so we can paint the bottom, service the zinc and drip less shaft logs.

Bookings continue to be sluggish and we still have some time open. The end of May and the seven day passage from Washington to Juneau will be here before we know it. This will be the boats tenth birthday and 10th year going North.

The Halibut season and limits still have not been set for the charter/sportfishing  guests so we will have to hope they will remain unchanged from last year.

Capt. Don