Here's a map of fuel stops i know of along the way.

Of course there may be more. But 1 of the critical factors is i need a boat that can make it thru the longest gap. Which i figure to be very at least 140 miles. So fig ~200miles. So to figure THAT, i need to know the gas mileage the thing gets.

Which brings up the subject of engines.

On my previous long sailing voyages, it was by sailboat.

For Baja & for Maine to Florida, i had a little 10HP outboard.

Inexperienced in Baja, i had a 5-gallon can + a couple extra gallons in a plastic tank.

Very quickly i realized that would not do at all. The wind blew constantly in exactly the opposite direction i wanted to go.

So along the way i added supplemental capacity of ~40gal in 4 big plastic jugs.

Engine-reliability-wise: Baja: Within just a couple days of the end, the engine started behaving very poorly. I suspected the fuel pump. So i disassembled the fuel pump, and as i removed the cover: PING, the innards shot spring-driven into the ocean. Dang. So i hoisted the tank up atop the cabin, the fuel gravity-fed to the engine, and i completed the trip, with dolphin escort.

East-coast: i had 2 problems: 1)Due to ubiquitous lobster traps, i kept hitting their buoy lines, this finally broke the shear-pin from prop to motor. [Shear-pin is there for precisely that reason, it prevents damage to motor innards.] Limping to Providence, Rhode Island, i hauled the motor ashore for repair. 2)The starter-pull-cord broke in ~North Carolina, which i repaired (laboriously) myself.

For the Channel Islands of southern California, i had a better (30' Columbia) sailboat, with an inboard, but the trips were perhaps at most 4days at a time so fuel was less a problem.

For this Alaska trip, as i said, i want a power-boat, PREFerably with *multi*-*out*board motors: This, so if there's some big problem:

• If 1 fails, i have a backup.
• i can CARRY the engine to who-knows-where for repair.