British Columbia

Circumnavigating Vancouver Island | Flotilla Day 4 | Cameleon Harbour to Forward Harbour

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We’d hoped to make it into the Broughtons today, but the weather had other ideas. The typical summer weather pattern for Johnstone Strait is relatively calm mornings followed by building northwesterly winds in the afternoon and evening. Once the sun goes down, the northwesterly usually diminishes. Today, though, the northwesterly was blowing in the morning. The Chatham Point lightstation reported 25 knots of wind and four foot moderate. Fanny Island … Read more

Circumnavigating Vancouver Island | Flotilla Day 3 | Campbell River to Cameleon Harbour

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On most of our flotilla trips, we take the “back way”—Yuculta Rapids, Gillard Pass, Dent Rapids, Greene Point Rapids, and Whirlpool Rapids—north from Desolation Sound to the Broughtons. This time, we’re in a hurry, so we’re taking the “highway” route. This route is less protected and less scenic, but shorter and only requires transiting one rapid: Seymour Narrows. Seymour Narrows is just eight miles north of Campbell River. Currents run … Read more

Circumnavigating Vancouver Island | Flotilla Day 2 | Nanaimo to Campbell River

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We left the docks at Nanaimo just before 6:00 a.m. for the long cruise north to Campbell River (about 75nm). The forecast for the Strait of Georgia was quite good, so we figured we’d skip our planned stop in Comox and have a long (but hopefully calm) day on the Strait of Georgia. The downside to the calm conditions is smoke. Visibility was about one mile most of the day. … Read more

Circumnavigating Vancouver Island Flotilla | Day 1 | Roche Harbor to Nanaimo

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We’ve started another flotilla, and will be circumnavigating Vancouver Island over the next four weeks! Our group met on Sunday at Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands and headed for Nanaimo in the morning. The wildfire smoke has been pretty bad for the past few days, but today seemed like the worst so far. We left Roche Harbor by 7:00 a.m. and the sun was just a faint orange … Read more

Airship | Victoria to Anacortes | Dragonboats and Orcas

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The day we left Victoria also happened to be the day of the 2018 Victoria Dragon Boat Festival in Victoria Harbour. The dragon boats began racing at 8:00 a.m. and would continue all day until about 4:30 p.m., so getting out of Causeway Floats between a race (every 11 minutes) took a little bit of planning with harbour security. We got instructions and an escort for part of the way … Read more

West Side of Vancouver Island Flotilla | Days 19-20-21 | Bamfield to Sooke Harbour and Victoria

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Bamfield to Sooke Harbour is a long cruise–about 73nm. The forecast was wind light, becoming west 10-20 knots in the afternoon, with some fog. We left Bamfield at first light…about 5:30 a.m. The sky (and thus, the water) turned bright pink as we headed out of Trevor Channel. Amazing!  There was a thick fog bank out toward sea, but our cruise was clear and gorgeous! We arrived in Sooke Harbour … Read more

West Side of Vancouver Island Flotilla | Day 18 | Effingham Bay to Bamfield

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Airship left Effingham Bay a bit ahead of the group (around 10:00 a.m.) for the 9.5nm cruise to Bamfield. It was foggy leaving Effingham Bay, but it eventually cleared as we got closer to Bamfield. We had reservations for everyone at the government dock on the west side of Bamfield, but there’s no full-time harbormaster to direct boats where to tie up. We thought it would be nice to have … Read more

West Coast of Vancouver Island Flotilla | Day 16-17 | Joe’s Bay to Effingham Bay

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We left Joe’s Bay around 10:00 a.m. and cruised the very short distance (less than 4nm) over to Effingham Bay. Most of our flotilla went right in and anchored, while Airship went out to Meares Bluff to do a little fishing. Meares Bluff is right around the corner from the anchorage, and since there were quite a few sport fishing boats with lines in the water, there was at least … Read more