Alaska Sailing
Where the Sun Never Sets
The Juneau Yacht Club is proud to host the 23rd running of the annual “Spirit of Adventure – Around Admiralty Race”, a 200 mile sailboat race around Admiralty Island National Monument. The Spirit of Adventure race is the longest inland water race on the west coast of North America. The race starts and ends in Juneau, Alaska each year on the last Saturday before the summer solstice.
Variety is usually the hallmark of Admiralty races, ranging from exciting runs and power reaches up Stephens to chasing puffs in Fredrick Sound while you bask in the sun. This is an inshore race, but if you continued to head straight down Chatham Strait, the first thing you would hit is Antarctica, and the water is over 4,000 feet deep. The race is held over the summer solstice and while there is night racing, it is never really very dark. The experience of a spinnaker run down Chatham under a full moon, with the red of the sunset in the west and the glow of the dawn in the east, and the moon’s reflection on snow topped mountain peaks, all at the same time, is an experience that will stay with you the rest of your life.