Our core product is The Alaska Companion book and illustrated map set, the enlarged version of his popular Alaska Cruise Handbook. It is a rich and unique travel guide. Award-winning author and mapmaker Joe Upton spent 20 years as a commercial fisherman and journalist, collecting stories, taking photos, making maps and catching fish. In this book with over 300 color photos, and included large illustrated map, he has assembled all the information you will need for your Alaska trip.
It includes detailed information on excursions, wildlife, walks, ports of call, cruise planning, where to look for whales and much more. But the enduring popularity of these books is because in addition to being a fully informational guide, it is also filled with Upton’s rich Alaska stories.
The other key element is the map. In addition to being, like his book, full of stories, it features a unique navigational aid. The red line shows cruise ship routes marked with a “Seattle as Mile Zero” numbering scheme. This allows ship staff to announce the ship’s position as “We are at Mile 742 on your map.”
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Joe’s Pocket Guide to Alaska Cruise Ports is perfect for ferry and cruise passengers. Fits in your shirt pocket and only 5.99

The Inside Passage Companion is a large format - 8.5x11 inches - all color 100 page book with maps, stories, tips, port information for Inside Passage Travelers.

Alaska Blues is Upton’s classic tale of a long season fishing salmon in Southeast Alaska, a perennial classic, still in print after 45 years! $15.95

This is a gripping memoir of a winter season of crab-fishing in the Bering Sea, filled with scary moments, killer ice, risky work, and for the lucky ones financial rewards. For others, surviving was their reward. Just 25, Joe Upton was the youngest guy aboard when the 104-foot Flood Tide pulled out of Seattle in March 1971 headed for Dutch Harbor with 700-pound crab pots stacked three deep on her deck. The top-heavy load caused some anxious moments later when the vessel iced up. The crew went to work with hammers and baseball bats as howling winds roughed up the seas and the Flood Tide rolled from side to side, threatening to capsize while everyone held their breath. BERING SEA BLUES is a thinking-man's book of the TV series 'Deadliest Catch' because Joe Upton did a lot of thinking that winter working 12- to 14-hour days in weather that would scare most mariners away. He figured if he challenged fate in the Bering Sea crab fishery too long he would wind up either rich or dead, or both.