[captain58sailin]

On your way north, when you are transiting the bars, it is very important that you make your crossing at high slack water, it can get very dicey if you don't. I commercial fished out of the Columbia river one winter and that bar made a believer out of me. Last summer I made the crossing from Cape Edgecumbe to Homer, in mid June. It was a broad reach the whole way with 25 kt to 35 kt winds and 4' to 8' swell, all the way across. There are several places when coming in from the gulf of Alaska to the Kenai peninsula that have some rip tides, the worst rips are at Pt. Adam, Flat island, and Pt. Pogibshi. You should hold off of Flat island about 5 miles to avoid that one and if you lay your course in from Elizabeth island to a 5 mile c.p.a. of Flat island, you will miss the rip at Pt. Adam. Keep Pt. Pogibshi at least 1.5 miles off your starboard beam to miss the rip there. If you want more details, PM me, I live in Homer and have fished/sailed out there for the last 40 years.