Victoria, Sooke, Port San Juan & Port Renfrew

Waggoner correspondents Vaughn Ploeger and Rebecca Earnest sent this note.

We went cruising recently in our Merit 25 sailboat—draws 4 feet or so.

This will probably be more than you ever want to know about Port San Juan and Port Renfrew. But first:

Confirming the Waggoner’s 2008 notes on entering Victoria, the Harbour Patrol is aggressively but politely contacting vessels coming and going to be sure they're aware of the traffic separation pattern and yellow divider buoys, the new requirement not to exceed 7 knots in the outer harbor (inside the breakwater), and the encouragement to stay close to the breakwater side of the entrance in order to leave plenty of room for large vessels and floatplanes.

The old hotel has been rebuilt into several waterfront cabins with nice view deck. They have a few pieces of native art on the walls and interesting historical photos in the hallways.

The Harbour Authority is working hard (and cheerfully) to find a space for everyone, at least in May – we were there two weekends in a row. The first weekend was in reserved space with our yacht club for Victoria Days, the second weekend was more or less unplanned. We arrived Friday afternoon of the Swiftsure Race weekend, when the harbor is full of fully crewed sailboats.

The Harbour Authority is a little shaky in keeping the new washrooms clean and supplied, and the hours of the main public restrooms under the Visitor Center have been slightly shortened (8 a.m.-9 p.m.). This is hard on sailboats, though most power boats these days seem self-contained. The Wharf Street dock is closer to the showers and is pleasant, but in the wrong wind it's downwind of powered-up floatplanes nearby.

Sooke Inlet

We found the entrance straightforward so long as we adhered exactly to the range markers. We appreciated having the large-scale chart, once inside. Because of the "public dock" label on the chart and the desire to be fairly far inside in a southerly blow, we went to the government dock, arriving about 7 p.m. Most of the dock space was occupied by commercial fishing vessels, and there was absolutely nobody around, nor any relevant signs. So we tied up in a protected empty space and stayed aboard and self-contained. On the way out we noticed the sign for guest space at the Sooke Harbor Marina. We were too busy chart-reading inbound. We left on an ebb – the outbound course outside Whiffin Spit can be a little rough if a south wind is blowing.

Port San Juan & Port Renfrew

We entered late afternoon on a fair amount of wind and swell and concentrated on the east side, where the Douglass book and a cruising friend with a heavier boat said a couple of anchorages could be found. Because of the swell, we went deep, to the area in front of the hotel at Port Renfrew, and anchored just inside the end of the community dock. The floats are in the water only seasonally; they had expected to put them in place a week before we arrived, but weather had been unfavorable. Hence, there were only the pilings that contain the floats.

Probably it is not safe to count on the floats earlier than June 1 or the last week of May. They ("they" are the people who run the hotel) say especially if you call ahead, usually you can be accommodated. We didn't ask whether that varies by size – our boat is sometimes viewed more benignly than larger ones. Showers can be had up the road, about a 10-15-minute walk, at a campground. It's another 10 minutes to a small grocery.

The old hotel burned down three years ago. It has been rebuilt, but they don't use the space for room rentals now; they have several waterfront cabins. The first floor has a kitchen in the middle, a sizable pub with TVs at the parking lot end, and at the other end a small dining room with west-facing windows opening onto a nice view deck. The decor is restrained NW with cedar wainscoting and a few pieces of native art on the wall. Some interesting historical photos are on the hallway walls. Nice restrooms, too.

But the big attraction for us was the food. We had the seafood chowder, made on site; the duck breast dinner; the beef-vegetable soup; the (organic!) tea and coffee; the cheesecake; the beef brisket with red cabbage on rye open-face sandwich; the pork chop dinner. All were worthy of a good urban restaurant. The Lighthouse Pub was not yet open for the season, so we have no comparison locally. The hotel dining room apparently had opened only recently.

While the hikers, kayakers, and visitors to the Botanical Beach Provincial Park (great tidepools) are important seasonal customers, it was our understanding that the thing that supports two restaurants is charter fishing groups. We gather that the dock area in front of the hotel is bedlam in season, and we walked past a number of places advertising that they offer charter services. When we were there, however, no local boats were in the water.

Bystanders commented that the bottom throughout the inlet is sand and not good holding. One said the bottom at the dock area is loose shale and not good holding, although the second time Vaughn brought the anchor up, he said it had mud on it. The first time, the anchor had a tire on it, which was definitely not good. The tire had been buried in the bottom, so the anchor felt set, but 22 hours later while we showered, it worked loose. A combination of excellent luck and heroic effort by Vaughn, who rowed our dinghy after the boat and dropped the outboard motor between two rocks at the breakwater, saved our boat. We spent the rest of our stay with two lines tied to one of the pilings where the floats are installed, and our anchor out as a stern anchor. (This is the really short version of the tale, of course.)

It's worth spending a day there, however one attaches one's boat to the world. On a nice day with a conveniently timed low tide it's a pleasant walk to the provincial park and a wonderful place to have a picnic lunch and explore the tide pools between Botanical Beach and Botany Bay (be careful of rising tides and picnic-alert black bears). Besides, you also get to hear the haunting sound of the whistle buoy at the entrance to Port San Juan. And if you're lucky, as we were, you get to watch feeding loons up close.

—Vaughn Ploeger and Rebecca Earnest
Orcas Island, Washington