West coast Vancouver island

Karl,

I have thought about this trip a bunch, and go back and forth as to ferry or launch here (Sequim) or from Neah Bay as Roger suggests. The Strait of Juan does blow up pretty regularly for a while almost every day, for a time, and so the 50 mile run across the east end on a flat day sounds really nice. The option to have either east side or west side access depending on the weather are also tempting so it is going to come down to a personal choice. In looking at going up to the Broken Group it looked like an even split dollar wise between the long boat ride, or the ferry and drive, pay and park in Port Alberni.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
20 years ago in July (wow - was it really that long?) we took our CD22 across on the ferry to Nanaimo, drove to Gold River, and spent two weeks on the coast, exploring all the inlets from Nootka Sound up to the SE side of the Brooks peninsula. Beautiful and remote country, lots of critters - reminds me of the north coast of BC.

Ferry was a tad cheaper then - maybe $80?
 
Thank you. Wish you could see the c dory better. If you could see it I would submit it for the calendar. We should go back and spend more time there. We went early in the season, march?, and encountered a lot of rain and wind. If I was going to do it today in the 27 we would anchor out and explore the little islands with the kayaks more. Back in 06 we had not started to use a dinghy yet. We had a blow up kayak that I really did not like much. Susan like's it but I prefer a hard shell and single not a double. We kayak well together we do not paddle well together :roll:

Taking the ferry then was about $400 round trip for the Ranger and the 22. My f350 and the 27, which is 40 on the trailer all by it's self, would be a 3 times that today. That's a lot of gas.

Just went to the BC ferry web site to look up current charges. $51.25 cover the first 20 ft that would leave me with 45 more ft at 5.85 per ft. That's a total of $629 each way or $1258 round trip.

So for comparison I added up what driving from my house to Neah Bay including ferry at Edmonds would cost plus gas to Ucluelet in the boat. Comes to around 518.74 round trip. Less then half of just the ferry from TSAWWASSEN - SWARTZ BAY. That does not include the gas from my house to the B.C. ferry to a launch. I'm glad I ran the numbers because I would have thought that going to Neah bay would be the higher expense.

Run you own numbers based on gas and ferry if any to your launch site from your home. After that its just cruising gas.

more pictures from 07 trip to broken group
 
You over charged yourself Tom. I trailer up there three times per year and am familiar with the fees so I saw you number and knew it was way high.

You combo from (TSAWWASSEN) TO (DUKE POINT) Nanaimo
at 65ft of length plus you and Susan is:

-base fee for first 20ft 51.85
-two people with port fee 31.30
-additional 45 ft 263.25

total one way 346.40

Round trip for you is 692.80

Important note: because your combo is over 60ft you cannot reserve online and need to call for a reservation. This is because of the commercial length but non-commercial trip.

That sounds much more reasonable!

My shorty combo with the three of us came out to 424.50 round trip which is well worth the options it opens up for us.
 
if you are really wanting to see the broken group,barkley sound area I would definitely launch from port alberni. very good launch and parking and a nice run out the inlet. leave early am to avoid the thermals. once you are at san mateo bay there are many optins for exploring. once here you can run up to the broken group and easily carry on to uclulet. way better than trailering over that damn road to ucy,tofino.
 
Greg you are right. Must have hit the = sign twice or something. Just check both our numbers and you are right, sorry about that. But that number does not include the gas for driving to the ferry and then the drive up the island. so Neah Bay is still the cheaper run. Taking the B.C. ferry opens up options of trailering to either coast and not being trapped by the weather. Thanks for the recount
 
When we were there in 2009, the parking at the Port Alberni launch ramp was across the street and free. Left the boat there for 3 weeks with no problem. Unlike Marina del Rey, the Port Alberni people were helpful.

Also, the trip down to Barkley Sound was great don't miss it. The whole area has a great amount of fisherman, their local buisness.

Boris
 
When I looked at the costs a couple of years ago, it was a little cheaper to take the WA Edmonds-Kingston ferry, drive out to Neah Bay and boat across to Uclulet than it was to drive up to Twassen and take the BC ferry and drive there. Nonetheless, I took the BC ferry since I was going over in June and I wanted to have a guaranteed departure date. E.g. on the big ferries weather doesn't matter near as much as it does on my own boat. If I was going to do it in late July/August, I'd go out of Neah Bay.
 
Thanks, Harvey. Last time I was there, 2008, the float and part of the access was in unusable shape. The Lodge is stunning inside, giant beams, tall ceilings, beautiful grounds in the day. Very active in 1999, lots of sports flying in or via water taxi from Bamfield, sumptuous meals, elegant hosts, owner attendant most of the time. Built from trees he took off a nearby logging show on Tzartus.

Buddy paddled into the bay in his single kayak, arranged a dinner, paddled back and changed into dinner wear, said it was the height of a week of paddling the Deer Group.
 
I went around Vancouver Island last summer and had a wonderful trip.

Barkley Sound was the most crowded of the inlets/sounds, but it was far from crowded compared to the inside areas as far north as Desolation Sound. Barkley Sound also has superb cruising, and the C-Dory allows you to go where most cruising boats can't. Shallow draft has its advantages!

If you have firm dates when you have to come and go, trailering is probably your best bet. Windy weather can shut the Strait of Juan de Fuca down for several days at a time. However, more often than not, summer mornings are calm, although they can be foggy.

Environment Canada gathers weather information from all the light house keepers along the coast. Keep an eye on their reports, the weather forecast, and the buoy reports and it should be pretty easy to pick a fair weather trip through the Strait.

http://weather.gc.ca/marine/weatherConditions-lightstation_e.html?mapID=02&siteID=06100

Be sure to pay attention to the currents, too. A couple knots of current against even moderate wind can make some ugly conditions.

Clayoquot Sound, just north of Barkley Sound, is also beautiful, and in my experience, less crowded.

The four cruising guides I used are:

1. Waggoner-I updated it extensively last year, but it's not as complete as some others.
2. Douglass Exploring the West Coast of Vancouver Island-best resource for anchorages, although it's showing its age.
3. Dreamspeaker West Coast Vancouver Island-nice illustrations, mostly up-to-date, fairly complete.
4. Watmough Cruising Guide to the West Coast of Vancouver Island-way out of date, but interesting history, great aerials, and good weather information.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Sam
 
Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like a pretty good reading list to get started on. If we were to take the ferry to Vancouver island it would be very difficult to not go directly to Port Hardy to launch. We'll have to read up and weigh our options.

Karl
 
BRINGING THIS BACK FOR CURRENT UP-DATED INFO:

Planning on some west side cruising this year and looking for updated info on parking and launch facilities for access to Quatsino Sound, (Port Alice or alternatives), and to Muchalat Inlet, (Gold River or Tahsis). Planning on towing in and launching on both inlets and using the BC Ferry from Tswassen to Duke Point and driving up Island.

Curious if there has been any or much C-Dory activity in either of those areas recently? And if so, what are you using for current guides?

Thanks for any helpful info.

Harvey
SleepyC:moon
 
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