Bowen Island - Squamish Anchorages

[cwyckham]

I would highly recommend Dreamspeaker guide books. Great sketches of all the decent anchorages up and down this part of the world and great write ups. Spendy but well worth it.

[michaelmrc]

excellent books yes i have a few of them now but not the howe sound edition

[Heart of Gold]

Yes the dream speaker books are great except that the Howe Sound edition stops at Porteau Cove, by the way another good hideout for lunch. I spoke to the author about this and her response was, we ran out of time.(?) For all sailors looking for a great place with friendly folks with some of the most exhilarating sailing on the coast, Squamish is a great place to visit with lots to do, we will even have a new gondola that will take you higher than the Chief by next summer... The entrance to Blind channel is not really that scary, so come on down.

[jimbim]

Michael, just want to add dittos for Plumper Cove and Halkett Bay. Expect you’ll have those anchorages to yourself this time of year. We also like Port Graves, plenty room to anchor in reasonable depth, but like Halkett it can get a little unsteady in the inflow. Nice trails. North shore of Mackenzie Cove, off Centre Bay, is also a nice spot to stern tie for a couple days, but maybe because we had it peacefully to ourselves during the summer.

We like the marina, etc at Snug Cove, but not crazy about anchoring in Mannion Bay which can be congested with permanent moorings and floats hogging areas with decent anchoring depth, at least during the summer months. Might be fine now.

If you visit False Creek, you do need a pass to anchor, but it’s free for two weeks. Anchor as close as you can to whatever public dock you most want to visit, then you can row your dinghy, leaving your motor safe on your boat. With the possible exception of the public dock at Granville Island, visiting and local cruisers rarely leave a small dinghy motor unattended in False Creek, and motorless dinghies typically have a good locking system, such as a cable that is not easy to cut.

We really like False Creek, and it’s a lovely place from which to see Vancouver. I don’t know theft statistics, or if cruisers are overly cautious, but when in Rome...