THE JAPAN/ALEUTIANS LOOP

This starts with the Clipper Route, but continues westward. It requires careful planning because the gap between two seasons is narrow and needs to be used exactly right. But the rewards are plentiful: Japan offers sensational cruising and of course very interesting historic sites to visit on land.

“For us, our visit to Japan was one of the highlights of our circumnavigation,” Dutch cruiser Ada Kerkstra says. She and her partner Akko Kalma sailed their 40ft Robert Clark design classic yacht White Haze around Japan for five months.

Then the challenging crossing to the rough and scarcely populated chain of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands gives the opportunity to visit some truly ‘off the beaten track’ destinations

From Kodiak there are lots of different options to cruise Alaskan and Canadian waters, either offshore or via the magnificent Inside Passage.

“You can spend a lifetime cruising here and not see the same anchorage twice” says American cruiser Fran Hartman. She and her husband, Jim, sailed their Tartan 48 Cape St. James into Sitka at the end of a circumnavigation and never left the region.

From Alaska, the loop can continue south.

TOTAL MILES: 16,500

BEST SEASON Sailing from Hawaii for Japan must be done before the tropical storms start in May. The best sailing to Alaska is done in June or July, which would limit your time in Japan. So you can spend a season in Japan, leave the boat there and sail across the next year or sail to Alaska a little later to overwinter the boat before continuing next summer.