BEAR PAW

# M/Y BEAR PAW A 90-foot custom-built expedition yacht with a steel hull, Bear Paw was conceived for one thing above all: reaching the places larger vessels simply cannot. She refitted in 2011 and works a coastline that rewards patience — the San Juan Islands and Washington State waters in winter, Southeast Alaska through the summer season. Accommodation is deliberately uncrowded: three cabins for six guests, each with a king-size bed. Three decks are served by an elevator, an unusual and genuinely useful feature aboard a yacht of this size, and one that opens the itinerary to guests with limited mobility. There is no fixed schedule. Routing is built around what the guests actually want to do and see, and around what the season is offering. Spring brings the herring run, drawing hundreds of whales and thousands of birds to the waters off Sitka — the reason photographers keep coming back. Early summer wakes the brown bears and opens the King and Chum salmon runs; Sitka holds one of the strongest King runs in Alaska. By late summer and into autumn, the bears are heavy and well fed as Sockeye and Coho join the cycle, and the whole food chain follows. Days aboard run on the rhythm of the coast. Hiking ashore, kayaking, beachcombing, fishing, dropping shrimp and crab pots for the day's catch. Or simply a chair on deck and a book while the shoreline slides past — which is usually when the wildlife appears anyway: sea and river otters, humpbacks, orcas, porpoises, Steller sea lions, harbour seals, bald eagles, hummingbirds. Natural hot springs are part of the route when the anchorage allows. This is expedition cruising in its truest sense — small, self-sufficient, and shaped entirely around where you decide to point the bow.