vstarr3rdact
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Tofino, Barkley Sound, and the Long Haul to Magnificent Victoria—We Have Circumnavigated Vancouver Island!!
Restaurants, galleries, gift shops, tourist boats buzzing everywhere, traffic … TOFINO! After weeks of moving from remote anchorage to remote anchorage with a few rugged sports fishing marinas in between, we finally tie up at Tofino Resort Marina. Tofino is west coast Vancouver Island’s most popular tourist destination. The rain barely dampens visitor enthusiasm or…
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Totems and the Sorrows of Colonization on the North Pacific Coast
After spending several glorious days in heat and sunshine in one of the most beautiful anchorages this trip, Bacchante Bay, it’s been raining hard for two days. We are anchored in a pretty little cove in Clayoquot Sound waiting it out. The big news is we finally saw a bear! I’m posting some pictures of…
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Exploring the Hidden Gems of Vancouver Island’s West Coast
It’s Wednesday, August 6 and we are at Westview Marina in Tahsis, BC. When I say we are at a marina, it’s not the kind you may first think of—tidy, well-kept, an aroma of money—these west coast marinas are small and roughhewn with an aroma more like dead fish. The docks list one way then…
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Tsunami Scare, The Brooks Peninsula, Sea Wolves, and Sunshine
Note: I’d almost completed the post below and had intended to post it last night when we received a text from fellow cruisers: “Have you seen the Tsunami alert?” We hadn’t.  Our radio was off and we were busy looking over maps and charts planning our next day. An 8.8 earthquake had hit in the…
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Rounding Cape Scott, We Begin Our Journey Down the West Coast of Vancouver Island
It all comes down to weather. The wind and currents dictate when or if we go. A gale blew for days on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island necessitating waiting for a weather window to arrive to allow safe and comfortable passage across Nahwitti Bar, and then around Cape Scott at the northern tip of…
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Halfway Through—Bears, New Friends, and a Breakdown
It’s become a joke of our Broughton exploration—bear spotting. “We’ve seen eight bears, so far,” quipped one fellow cruiser. New friends, Karl and Laura, text us pictures of the bears they see on the beach. “Go to Nimmo Bay,” they tell us, “We always see bears there.” They show us a picture of a huge…
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“Rocks and Trees and Trees and Rocks…and Water” in the Broughtons
It’s a good day to catch up. After being on the move every day this past week—exploring and poking in and out of bays and anchorages—it’s pouring rain today and we are staying put. There are more than a dozen boats hunkered down with us in Turnbull Cove in the North Broughtons. It’s the most…
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Living History—Artist Yvonne Maximchuk in Echo Bay
I sent Yvonne Maximchuk a text that we were in the green sailboat idling in the bay outside her house. There was an “open” sign for her gallery, Searose Studio, and a small float and ramp leading to her house, there was no other way to get there. David and I have been reading Yvonne’s…
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Repairs Completed in Port McNeill, We Cruise to Historic Sointula on Malcolm Island
It rained hard for three days. Tucked into the municipal dock at Port Mc Neill on north Vancouver Island, David was once again in the bottom of the cockpit locker twisted into a pretzel. He had to disconnect and pull out our four 60-pound house batteries and install four new ones. C.A.B. Industrial Automotive (owned…
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Battery Troubles, Beauty, and Boating Adventures in the Broughtons
The good news is the engine started. But the slow drag of the starter got our attention. Anchored out in remote Pott’s Lagoon in the Broughtons would be a very inconvenient place to end up with a dead battery. We’ve been motoring only short distances the last four days as we dip into rustic marinas…
Oceana Voyage 