CANADA’S COMMERCIAL MARINE MAGAZINE AUGUST 2019 WESTERNMARINER.COM 7W
estern Mariner visited southern Vancouver
Island over the course of a few sunny ear-
ly-summer days, and found plenty going
on. In Victoria, construction is well under-
way for the region’s new waterfront waste-
water treatment plant (see page 16), and the new Victoria
International Marina was getting set to celebrate its official
grand opening (page 17). The Department of Transport has
finished remediation of the Laurel Point shoreline (for-
merly a paint factory and now in use as a park). The GVHA
(Greater Victoria Harbour Authority) has finished renova-
tion of ship point (the pilings were in rough shape) and
replaced derelict pilings at the entrance to West Bay, with
purple Martin boxes on top of the new pilings.
Questions over the salmon fisheries have created a bit
of cloud on the horizon for the region’s fishermen, but that
wasn’t stopping them from getting their boats ready, and
in some cases getting back into other fisheries (page 22). Standing by the Brotchie Ledge beacon after releasing the
cruise ship azamara QueSt (photo above) is the 28 m (92-ft),
5,000-hp Z-peller tug SeaSpan eagle (2011, Sanmar Denizcilik
Mak Ltd., Istanbul, Turkey).Waterfront
Southern Vancouver Island
Victoria, Sidney and Sooke
Photos and text by Simon Hill
Departing Victoria Harbour on one of its scheduled sail training voyages is the 81-ft (111-ft/33.8 m sparred length) Sail And
Life Training Society (SALTS) schooner pacific Swift (1986, SALTS Sail & Life Training Society), with the cruise ship azamara
QueSt in the background. The pacific Swift was built as a working exhibit for Expo 86, based on the brigantine Swift of 1778. In
addition to sail training outings – which includes short school sailings in the spring and longer 10-day voyages in the summer –
the pacific Swift has completed numerous offshore voyages over the years. The azamara QueSt(built for Renaissance Cruises in
2000 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique of France) was departing for Alaska and holding station just off Brotchie Ledge awaiting pilot
transfer. Assisting out of sight off the port bow in the 15-knot sea breeze was the tug SeaSpan eagle (see photo below).VICTORIA