Photo courtesy of Lars Zika

The 62-foot sailboat “She-Ra” visited Haines harbor over the weekend. It was the boat with an Alaskan malamute face printed on the bow. Captain Lars Zika is sailing around the world with his dog, and meeting friends along the way. KHNS’ Corinne Smith spoke with him after a sunny day of sailing on the Lynn Canal. 

 

Lars Zika says there wasn’t really a plan when he set sail in Bangkok, Thailand in June. He was solo, on the water, heading East. 

“Knowing that the best time to cross from Japan, cross the North Pacific or Bering Sea or whatever towards the Vancouver, Alaska area would be July August. But coming up to Japan is really not a good season then, because it’s the cyclone season there. So you’ve got to go through some s*** to have a good blow across the north,” he said.

Well, he’s not entirely alone. He’s accompanied by his seven year old Alaskan Malamute, “She-Ra.” Yes, the boat is named after the dog.

“This one here, with the pink tongue here,” he said smiling.

She-Ra is named after the 1980s animated superhero series “She-Ra: Princess of Power,” a childhood favorite for Zika (Corinne Smith/KHNS)

With distinct black and white markings, She-Ra is from a line of Malamute sled dogs in Juneau. “Seven generations ago, she was my lead dog on the sled in Juneau, when I lived on a farm there.”

Photo courtesy of Lars Zika

Zika is originally from Switzerland. He worked as a chef, and owned several restaurants throughout Southeast Asia. He took up sailing two years ago while living in Bangkok. 

“I don’t like people, so I went sailing,” he said with a laugh. 

He bought the 62-foot “She-Ra” sailing yacht in 2018, and started racing. 

“Did a lot of races with it, and we always did really really good. And she (the boat) is a beast.”

And She-Ra the dog is the mascot. Her image is emblazoned across the sail, and bow. 

“All the time, she’s always with me,” Zika said. “So I decided to put her on all of the stuff. It is fun. The racing community is quite small, when people take it a bit serious, and so the boat gets known, and when we arrive, it’s always, just very enjoyable.”

Photo courtesy of Lars Zika

This summer, alone with his dog in the South China Sea, his auto-pilot system broke and he crossed 3500 nautical miles of storms, staying up for 72 hours straight. 

“I got into really, really bad weather for a very long time. And naturally, because you can’t do multiple things at once when you’re alone, and without an autopilot having keeping the boat so a lot of stuff broke because of accidental jibes and s*** like that. You can’t let go of the wheel for five seconds if the waves are big. Otherwise up when she’s very well balanced, she steers yourself with 20 minutes. But downwind with big waves, you just have to hold that wheel.”

Photo courtesy of Lars Zika

In South Korea he towed a broken down Russian vessel and was welcomed to the port of Vladivostok, Russia, where he fixed up his boat and even competed in a three day regatta. You can read local reporting on his journey here, by local press.

“​​They were super nice,” Zika said. “They fixed the boat everything, they were they were just amazing. I mean it was king crab and caviar every day.”

He crossed the Bering Sea alone then and a friend joined him in Kodiak. Then they visited Seldovia, Homer then to Seward. They sailed the Gulf of Alaska together in six days. But the challenge was crossing through the Dixon Entrance into the Inside Passage.

“Then we had really Alaska’s angry 50 knots on the nose. That was it the Dixon Inlet, we were 16 to 12 months off the inlet, timed it perfectly to arrive in the morning, where the tide would help and everything was literally falling into place. And then it started gusting 50s at us from the nose massive seas, so we spent 24 hours doing a big circle.”

Zika and friends are now sailing the Inside Passage.

“I mean, having orcas 360 degrees around the bow just joining you on your little journey for a few hours. That’s pretty ridiculous,” he said smiling. “And drinking champagne in front of a glacier by cracking through surface ice is also quite nice.”

Lars Zika in Haines (Corinne Smith/KHNS)

They sailed up the Lynn Canal, making stops in Skagway and Haines. 

“Even coming up here we just had some orcas pop out and play and leap, just from Skagway to here. We had three up here and She-Ra gets all excited, she thinks he’s one of them because they share the same skin color.”

(Corinne Smith/KHNS)

They spent the weekend in Haines, hiking Mt Riley, visiting the Port Chilkoot Distillery and took a group of new friends sailing on Sunday. Though winds were light it was a rare blue sky sunny day.

“It’s hard not to extend everything here, it’s hard not to stay a bit longer.”

On Monday, he set sail down the Inside Passage, headed for Vancouver. But from there, it’s open. 

“A few weeks ago I figured out it’d be a great idea to do it in North America circumnavigation, like the continent itself. Yeah, there’s very good people around Vancouver and in America, and it sounds like it seems like a good fun thing to do. Go around a little bit of the Caribbean as well, and then back up and then do it from Newfoundland around that side. Hopefully maybe, but I mean whatever, it doesn’t really matter. It really doesn’t. It’s pretty much, everywhere the wind blows it’s pretty amazing so far, so not gonna limit it by a plan.”

So if you see the She-Ra — its the one with a Malamute face across the sail—say hello. You can also follow their journey online here.

Sailing on the Upper Lynn Canal (Corinne Smith/KHNS)