Some 150 sailors, paddlers and rowers will climb aboard 60 assorted boats in Port Townsend and set off for the second nonmotorized Race to Alaska this week. It’s billed as Washington’s Iditarod. This time last year, Seattle sailor Dan Blanchard was drenched in 50-degree saltwater, sleep-deprived, mildly hypothermic and clinging to the helm of a flyweight sailboat, battered by 35-knot winds and 5-foot waves somewhere along the British Columbia coastline. Read More