West Coast Vancouver Island – Trip Summary

Last week we got back from our 4-week trip out the Strait of Juan de Fuca, up the west coast of Vancouver Island to Barkley and Clayoquot Sounds, back through the Strait to Victoria, around the Gulf Islands a couple days, and then back to Seattle.

This was about 600 nautical miles, but that’s just the straight line distance – with tacking and jibing when we were sailing, we probably did closer to 800.

Overall route (not all circles represent stops, those are just the points where I needed to change the route line direction)

Overall route (not all circles represent stops, those are just the points where I needed to change the route line direction)

Detailed route of Barkley and Clayoquot Sounds.

Detailed route of Barkley and Clayoquot Sounds.

As cruisers often say, the highs were very high and the lows very low. Cruising is often more intense, in both the good and the bad, than land life. Our two biggest problems were mechanical – the fuel filter clogging in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the transmission progressively failing. There were human challenges too – dealing with very tiring passages, mild seasickness, difficulties in confused ocean waves, challenges controlling the sails in high winds, and almost swinging into rocks at anchor.

Despite the challenges, I feel we did quite well. We didn’t have any failures of seamanship – no groundings, no navigational mistakes, no anchor dragging, no poor timing of weather, no docking mishaps.

There were hard times, but for this post I want to focus on the fun times – all the amazing experiences and especially the great photos I got.

Stream-fed bathing pool at Matilda Inlet

Stream-fed bathing pool at Matilda Inlet

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Anchored in Matilda Inlet (our favorite anchorage of the trip)

Wildlife

The trip was not a roadside safari, yet we saw plenty of wildlife.

  • Whales – a gray whale while we were sailing south of Hot Springs Cove in large, confused seas, and a small whale near Effingham Bay that actually breached (jumped out of the water)!
  • Bears – two separate sightings of black bears on Vancouver Island from Clayoquot Sound.
  • Orcas – multiple groups in one sighting in Becher Bay near Victoria. There were several whale watching boats following them.
  • Pregnant sea otter? Offshore of Barkley Sound we saw a sea otter curled into a fetal position on her back, feet sticking straight into the air – we thought she must either be giving birth, or sick. It was the oddest sight, randomly a couple miles offshore in ocean waves.
  • Lots and lots of eagles. My favorite was in Tofino when a male bald eagle carrying a salmon head in his claws flew right in front of me only about 15 feet away.

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  • Seals (of course).
  • A raccoon just a few feet off the trail on Portland Island.

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Great Hikes

  • Portland Island (aka Princess Margaret island, part of the Gulf Islands national park) – this was probably our favorite sailboat-accessed hike yet – about a 6 km trail running around the island that had great views the whole way and interesting vegetation and scenery – lots of photo ops.
Portland Island

Portland Island

  • Effingham Bay – I did this hike twice, once with Natalie and once with Kristina and Scott from Seattle. It’s an easy hike with a great beach, and when Natalie and I did it we went to the sea cave. The cave would be fun to explore further with a flashlight.

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The sea cave at Effingham Island

The sea cave at Effingham Island

  • Hot Springs Cove – this is an easy hike on a boardwalk, with a natural hot springs at the end as reward!
Hiking to the hot springs

Hiking to the hot springs

  • Bamfield Boardwalk – it’s a stretch to call this a hike, but Bamfield was super cute – especially the dogs!

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Arrived in Victoria and docked in front of the Empress Hotel

Arrived in Victoria and docked in front of the Empress Hotel

Our last day - with a failing transmission but a 12 knot wind at our backs, I pointed the bow pointed at Mount Rainier and we sailed home.

Our last day – with a failing transmission but a 12 knot wind at our backs, I pointed the bow pointed at Mount Rainier and we sailed home.

3 thoughts on “West Coast Vancouver Island – Trip Summary

  1. MWhite:LittleCunningPlan

    So funny that we just did this exact trip and got home to Tacoma last weekend. We saw you and waved howdy as you passed us at anchor off Calf Island by Tofino. We were the big blue ketch anchored at the top of the island. I had been messaging Kristina Southard about possible water shortages on the island and we thought maybe we would be in the same place at the same time. Anyway, just saw you on ThreeSheets and thought I’d stop and say hello this way. Sorry to read your transmission went out. But you have a great story to tell about motoring backwards! Hope you get that sorted quickly.

    Reply
  2. Patrick

    Hi! We saw you near Tofino but didn’t realize you knew us. I remember wondering if you were aground and needed help because it looked like you were quite close to the tidal flats – distances are hard to tell from afar though.

    Reply
    1. MWhite:LittleCunningPlan

      How funny! No, we were not aground, although we were quite close to the mud. A little too close for comfort, but not actually in danger of being aground. We quickly learned that anchoring up there is either too close to the shore for our large boat or it is in deep water. We left shortly after you saw us and headed up Tofino Inlet. We do not actually know you and have not meet Kristina personally, but Kristina said to be on the lookout for your boat and we realized it was you as you passed.

      Reply

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