Good places to drop anchor in BC?

[ira.s]

Where are some good places to drop anchor for longer periods of time on the west coast of British Columbia?

[Agri]

What are you looking for? Peace and quite, to be near a city and culture, other cruisers?

[ira.s]

All of the above just been around Salt Spring and Maple bay. I am just trying to make a list of good places to anchor.

[Bilgewater]

There are thousands of good spots along the coast Ira. I assume your interested in your area from Victoria to Nanaimo. A real good starting point would be to get a copy of the Dreamspeaker Cruising Guide Volume I. It's well worth the cost and it covers the main anchorages in your area with nice hand drawings, good descriptions and well written. Welcome to Sailnet.

[Faster]

Originally Posted by seayalatermoonglow

There are thousands of good spots along the coast Ira. I assume your interested in your area from Victoria to Nanaimo. A real good starting point would be to get a copy of the Dreamspeaker Cruising Guide Volume I. It's well worth the cost and it covers the main anchorages in your area with nice hand drawings, good descriptions and well written. Welcome to Sailnet.

There's good advice for you.

For a start.. Wallace Island is close by and always a good spot. It would help to know what boat you're on - what you draw will have a bearing on what areas you can sneak into or not.. for instance Conover Cove in Wallace is a bit shallow (at the entrance and at the ends of the bay) whereas Princess Bay a little to the NW is better.

Montague Harbour on Galiano is another popular spot, busy but a good park, some mooring buoys as well as an anchoring area, some of the best sunsets on the West coast from the shell beach.

James Bay on Prevost is another great stop in settled weather, and many of the other arms on Prevost are good fair weather anchorages but most are all private foreshore..James Bay is a park preserve.

Russell Island near Fulford Harbour is another summertime anchorage with a bit of history to go with it (buy the guides!)

Slightly NW you've got the north edge of Thetis Island in settled weather, and further still Ruxton and DeCourcy islands have some very nice spots to stop.

No shortage.. all easy weekend destinations.

[jackdale]

Sailing Directions from the Canadian Hydrographic Service is also a good source. It covers the whole southern portion of of the BC coast and costs the same as one volume of Dreamspeaker.

You might also use other paper publications such as Northwest Boat Travel or Wagoneer. Also try Active Captain online.

[jrd22]

You might be better served by asking where ISN'T a good spot to drop the hook in BC :-)) It would be a much smaller list.

[Capt Len]

Too much plan and waypoints just makes the adventure of cruising and discovery ho hum. I sailed 22tons of gaffer (no engine) with a chart ,tide book and a sounder. That was fun!

[CaptainWabamun]

Great set of cruising guides for BC West Coast and the Gulf Islands are the Dreamspeaker Cruising Guides. I have used Volume 1: Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island, Victoria & Sooke to Nanaimo, personally.

They give good sailing and local area information, nice maps and lots of good and tried tips. Our sailing club recently arranged a boat expo and it included Anne Yeadon-Jones, one of the authors of the series. Learned they also now have a DVD on west coast sailing - they were selling at $10 . My latest copy indicates that they can be purchased through Harbour Publishing: Harbour Publishing: Home

I have no connection to the authors or the guides beyond being one of many satisfied sailors who have used the guides.