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Foggy hillside in Klaskino Inlet. Surprise at anchor.
Below Right: Off Brooks Peninsula. This is Solander Island. |
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Here is Miss Charlie, the seal, with companions. At Walters Cove. |
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Zeballos. Great fish.
Below Right: Walters Cove moorage. A similar float is on the other side of the pier. |
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JUNE/JULY CRUISE, PAGE 2:
Weather challenges, kayakers & fuel on the West Coast
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You said the West Coast of Vancouver Island is hard to get to by boat?
The Strait of Juan de Fuca, with its long stretches of hostile shoreline, is a significant barrier from the east -- that is, from Puget Sound. From the north, Cape Scott and Brooks Peninsula are notorious for dangerous, even deadly, sea conditions. It takes a good, well-equipped boat and good seamanship and navigation skills to be out there. It also takes time. We took three weeks to get down the West Coast, and we were moving every day.
That said, if you have the time, the boat and the experience, and you're willing to wait for the right weather, the West Coast is completely do-able.
How long might you have to wait for weather?
 Just before Bob Spanfelner and I set out, a series of gales had boats holed up for six straight days before they could get around Cape Scott. This was in mid-July. Luckily for us, those gales were the weather's last onslaught before a pattern of quieter conditions settled in, and we had good weather all the way down. Cape Scott was flat. The sea at Solander Island, the hated turn of Brooks Peninsula, was barely rippled -- and we were there at 5:20 p.m., when it's supposed to be howling 35 knots. The sun was shining and it was warm. I took pictures of Solander Island, right up close.
I have a saying: "I'm willing to be lucky." I bore people with it, but it works. You can't be foolhardy, but you do have to be willing to be lucky.
What kinds of boats did you see on the West Coast?
Very few powerboats, mostly sailboats. I think more powerboaters should do it. As for size, everything from mid-20-footers to megayachts. And sea kayaks. About three million sea kayaks.
Kayakers are everywhere on the West Coast. A kayak is probably the best way to get really close to nature, but you are camping out. Forget about the refrigerator, the microwave, and the assurance of a dry bed when it rains.
How do the "three million" kayaks get there?
 Oh, you don't have to go around Cape Scott or out the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Roads lead out to all the major sounds. They tend to be dirt roads, but they're in good condition.
You can launch at Coal Harbour or Port Alice and see Quatsino Sound, or even drive out a rough dirt road to Winter Harbour. Fair Harbour gives you Kyuquot Sound and the Bunsby Islands. Zeballos is a good jump-off for Esperanza Inlet. Tahsis or Gold River serve Nootka Sound. Tofino, in Clayoquot Sound, is alive with tourists and kayak shops. Barkley Sound is served by Ucluelet and Bamfield. If you don't want to drive that far, you can launch at Port Alberni. Most of the sporties launch at Port Alberni.
So you can be on the West Coast without having to do the whole thing. In fact, we saw a great many trailerable boats out there, fishing. They were doing well, too. Lots of 25-40 pound salmon, big lingcod, sea bass, red snapper and various rockfish.
We divided the pleasure boats into two general groups: yachties -- that's what we were -- and sporties -- the sport fishermen in their 20-26-footers. As yachties, we slept aboard and got up at a civilized hour. The sporties slept in motels and got up at 3:30 a.m. to get out to the hot spots in time for the morning bite.
Is fuel a problem?
 Fuel is available all the way down. But if commercial fishing doesn't get going again, that may change. Logging has declined, and that hurts, too. The price of logging may be clear-cuts, but the legacy is fuel docks and facilities for pleasure boats. Logging operations use a lot of boats. It takes a strong commercial boat base to support the fuel docks. Six weeks of yachties isn't enough.
The fuel dock at Walters Cove, for instance, needs to buy new tanks by next year, and it doesn't sell enough fuel to justify the investment. We don't know what's going to happen. Walters Cove is the only real question mark for next year, though, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Walters Cove problem solved, one way or another.
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