West Coast of Vancouver

[robmo]

Hi All,

I'm interested in finding sources for good anchorages along the west coast of Vancouver Island. I know about Hot Springs Cove, Tofino and Barkley Sound, but I'm wondering about other spots that are protected with good holding ground in between these more popular places. We're sailing form north to south in early Sept. and we need alternatives in case the weather conspires against us enroute.

Many thanks,

Scomo

[Annie in WA]

Hi Scomo. You may not be getting replies because there are lots of anchorages on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in any of the five Sounds. We spent two months cruising from anchorage to anchorage. You might want to check out a cruising guide to Vancouver Island. Don Douglas has a good one, as does Don Watmough. Also, check out the Waggoner website.

[Livia]

We cruised a full year in BC and looped Vancouver Island twice. We really liked the Dreamspeaker books which you can often get from BC/WA libraries if you can't afford a copy and often can find used as well:

Book Review: Cruising British Columbia ~ SV Estrellita 5.10b

[TacomaSailor]

Here is a link to all the notes and photos (scanned from 35 mm) I took on our month long cruise from Gig Harbor - Neah Bay - Cape Scott - Barkley Sound - Gig Harbor

Contains a lot of details about the 14 Island anchorages we used

There are hundreds of places - mostly inside the head lands

Great place to cruise

ARCHIVES

go to the bottom of the page and you'll find the Vancouver Island Links

Here is a short excerpt from the log entry I made while anchored in Neah Bay as we waited for a weather window to cross the open water to Pt Beal

"While looking North out of Neah Bay past Waddah Island we noticed a steady stream of tankers headed east. I commented to MJH about the exceptional boat traffic. He looked with Bino’s . The tankers were really 15+’ swell marching east towards Sekiu and PA. Straits don't look very inviting for a couple days - 36 nautical miles upwind, upswell to Beal Point & Barkley Sound "

I got impatient the next day and tried to sail into those swells - had to turn back 'cause the swells were so big Mirador lost wind in it's sails as it entered each trough