[Faster]

Just back from another delightful summer's cruising up and down the BC Coast, our travels ranged from our home near Vancouver to Desolation Sound, south to Victoria's inner harbour, and many points in between. We often patronize the provincial marine park system and this year was no exception. Good anchorages, shore facilities and picturesque locations along with the potential for a nice walk or fresh water swim make for some great stops.

Here are some snippets of a few of them...

Montague Harbour, Galiano Island (Gulf Islands)







Pirates Cove, DeCourcy Island (Gulf Islands) - Google 'Brother XII' for some interesting local history.



Walsh Cove, Waddington Channel, West Redonda Island Desolation sound.



Not a true park, but a park reserve, Carrington Bay and lagoon on Cortez Island, Desolation sound. A good anchorage and interesting lagoon, especially it's outflow, along with plenty of rustic camping and 'biffies' (shore toilets) We had it to ourselves this day, traffic on the NW side of Cortez is a fraction of the busier southern and eastern bays.









Being in Desolation Sound does reduce the odds on good sailing weather and despite a better-than-usual year on that front, we did have a 5 hour transit in flat, glassy conditions.



Tenedos Bay, part of Desolation Sound Marine Park



These views from a hilltop, a steep 20 minute hike from our anchorage (our boat is in the raft-up just visible at the bottom of the first pic):





There are few places more tranquil than Desolation's Pendrell Sound in early morning..



Another early morning calm in Jervis Inlet, Hardy Island near Musket Is Marine Park.



Shell Beach at Herring Bay, Ruxton Island, DeCourcy island distant (Gulf Islands)





An unusual wakeup scene for us.. this fog lasted most of the morning and we were very grateful for our radar and plotter esp when our trip that day involved crossing ferry traffic. We had longish periods of 50 ft visibility.. pretty well cleared up when we reached our destination, Sidney Spit.





Wallace Island Marine Park, Gulf Islands - a prime sunset spot with good walking trails and the remains of an old small time resort still preserved.



Gulf Island Sandstone is always a favourite photo subject..



This character was too comfortable to move - I've never gotten this close to a resting seal before!



We spent much of the last two weeks traveling with our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter and their Schock 35 'Excalibur'. On of our granddaughters favourite low-tide activities is 'rescuing' stranded seastars by returning them to the water!





Our final crossing home was near perfect, wind on the beam, sailing at motoring speeds or better, rhumbline heading, flat water.. No wind to speak of on the bay later as we approached the city..





We were pleased to briefly bump into Ray and Sandy on Nikko (SNers erps) at Refuge cove but we were going in opposite directions and only had time for a quick 'Hi'..

Another good summer anyhow, upcoming long weekend is a trip to another must-do BC park, Newcastle Island at Nanaimo, where our club does up a pretty awesome salmon BBQ each labour day event.

 

[copacabana]

Great trip and lovely photos Ron! Abraços!

 

[tdw]

Really Fast, cluttering up the forum with this rubbish. Tsk tsk.

 

[northoceanbeach]

The best set of photos I've ever seen posted on sailnet! Good for you!

 

[Uricanejack]

Lovely pictures, I made it to a few of those destinations myself this year and a quite a few more I've still to see

 

[T37Chef]

Someday I hope to sail those waters...wow!!!

 

[Jeff_H]

Absolutely fabulous. Thanks Ron. Does the heart good to see......

 

[Dog Ship]

Very nice Faster.
You are so lucky to be able to get away like this. We just never seem to find the time.
Brother XII, Wakes Cove and Valdes Island are all part of our families history. For almost 100 years our family owned what is now Wakes Cove Provincial Park. In 2003 it was sold back to the Province and turned into the marine park it is today. Some of our family still lives in the park and will until they are past away.
Our family helped Brother XII's followers escape from here and supported there return to society. We have lots of stories and there have been many books written on the history of this.
Thanks for sharing the pictures Ron.

 

[Faster]

Very nice Faster.
You are so lucky to be able to get away like this. We just never seem to find the time.
Brother XII, Wakes Cove and Valdes Island are all part of our families history. For almost 100 years our family owned what is now Wakes Cove Provincial Park. In 2003 it was sold back to the Province and turned into the marine park it is today. Some of our family still lives in the park and will until they are past away.
Our family helped Brother XII's followers escape from here and supported there return to society. We have lots of stories and there have been many books written on the history of this.
Thanks for sharing the pictures Ron.

Thanks! Interesting family history, wow.

We are lucky, both my wife and I are in the (non BCTF) education field and get summers off. We also both know for sure we're back to work soon!

 

[paikea]

All of them are great, but I loved the photo with the boats in fog! Perfect shot.

 

[Faster]

Thanks all!

Back to Wallace Island.. a former 'summer kitchen' building has long been a place for boaters to leave a driftwood 'plaque' with your boat name, crew, comments etc. It's gotten rather out of control soon it may be impossible to actually enter the space. Lots of creativity and it's a great way to while away some time.





Plenty of good sunsets, but no truly spectacular ones that lasted well into twilight. Still..



And.. can anyone identify what these are? Thinking some kind of anemone but we couldn't find the same thing in the reference book on board..

 

[SchockT]

Wow! You need to get yourself an underwater camera! it's tough to identify them when they are hanging, but I'll bet that little nook is beautiful at high tide!

 

[PaulinVictoria]

Nice photos Ron, you are very lucky to have the time to spend cruising like that. Desolation Sound sure looks busy though, can't believe the numbers of boats up there.

 

[tdw]

All jokes aside, Fast's regular pictorials are a class act indeed. Makes me green with envy of course but a recurring reminder as to how beautiful is that part of the world and how good a photograper he is.

 

[Faster]

All jokes aside, Fast's regular pictorials are a class act indeed. Makes me green with envy of course but a recurring reminder as to how beautiful is that part of the world and how good a photograper he is.

Why thank you, Sir... btw the apology in the title was meant for you, of course

Good photographer? Dunno about that, decent camera and good subject material goes a lot further, I'd say....

This is now two years running where we've had maybe 2 days of rain between the end of June and end of August. Mind you we had probably 3 inches of rain overnight in July.. it had rained steadily all day and then REALLY got going around midnight. Quick clear up and very little since.

The fog was a rare event, and damned scary. Loved the radar (and the fact that it still worked when we turned it on) the plotter worked a treat but I was wishing for an AIS receiver in the ferry lanes. Today's technology is a wonderful thing!

 

[Uricanejack]

Keep a listening watch on CH 11. 12 if further North 5a and 13 south of the border.
You will hear them call in unfortunatly they do a lot of thier own comunication on a private channel. MCTS will update you on thier locations if you ask.
They will point out you are not required to participate. and seem to have more patience in bad visability.

 

[Capt Len]

Nice to see some pictures of my old stomping grounds. Most of my cruising was north of smiths but it's all fabulous .Back in the '70's it was even better. But no plotter or radar made it exciting .Then there was the season my sounder went out. Thanks for the photos.

 

[jrd22]

Great pics Ron! Wish we'd made it up there, thanks for the reminders of all the great places to go.

 

[smackdaddy]

Enjoy my friend!

You lucky bastard!

 

[tdw]

Why thank you, Sir... btw the apology in the title was meant for you, of course

Good photographer? Dunno about that, decent camera and good subject material goes a lot further, I'd say....

This is now two years running where we've had maybe 2 days of rain between the end of June and end of August. Mind you we had probably 3 inches of rain overnight in July.. it had rained steadily all day and then REALLY got going around midnight. Quick clear up and very little since.

The fog was a rare event, and damned scary. Loved the radar (and the fact that it still worked when we turned it on) the plotter worked a treat but I was wishing for an AIS receiver in the ferry lanes. Today's technology is a wonderful thing!

Given the amount of rain we've had this winter your joke is in very poor taste.

OK then, so you are actually complete crap as a photographer but what then is the miracle machine you are using ?

On the one occasion we have ended up in a pea souper AIS was an absolute godsend. We knew we had a bulk carrier in our vicinity and our guesses as to location where way off beam. On AIS we could track him easily. Great stuff.