linseed
2009-09-05 03:00:07
Does any one have good fueling spots they like to stop at, good anchorages, stuff you just have to see as your traveling thru B.C
Once and Future
2009-09-07 22:38:50
Challenge: Find a copy of the B.C. Coast Pilot book. I made the passage for the first time this spring. Wasn't sure what book I was looking for at the time and had to rely on locals for guidance. BECAUSE there are some tense spots (for example Seymour Narrows in Discovery Passage off Vancouver island). Never did find a copy of BC Coast Pilot so I would order it ahead of time.
Charlie's Charts is a book with some invaluable anchorages, but I wasted a lot of time trying to find info in it. Hint: have a highlighter to mark important tidbits OR look for hours when you want to find it again later. After the fact I found a book called something like How to Sail to Alaska Without Rocking the Boat (Too Much) which seems to have some good stuff.
Personal experiences: I almost didn't use Grenville channel and that would have been a big mistake. Very protected passage as well as beautiful. Ruins of a community was cool to see, I think it was in this channel.
Canadian fuel is taxed much higher than hours, but in a pinch the places that have fuel but are not obvious are Klemtu and Bella Bella (also a spot right east of Bella Bella the name of which escapes me now). The two I named are native villages and my experience was the guy in Kemtu you could call out anytime, but Bella Bella and its neighbor were closed on Sunday.
Oh and make sure you have a radio tuned to the traffic channels. Don't recall what they are just now, you'll have to check. The radio saved me once from a bad situation with a cruise ship, and my daughter looked back at just the right time when I was concentrating on what was ahead of me in the narrow channel north of Bella Bella.
The town you're thinking of must have been Buttedale. We tied up there overnight on our way north last year - the last remaining local resident was very interesting, and very obliging after we paid for our nights' moorage with a bottle of wine :)
One really cool place to stop is Codville Lagoon, on the East side of Fitz Hugh Sound (closest town is Bella Bella). Good shrimping outside the opening and sandy beaches inside! :)
Soggy Dollars
2009-10-20 08:54:36
We usually fuel up in Campbell River -they have always been very friendly and accomodating to us. Diesel fuel has been real clean, too.