Boating New Zealand — December 2017

34 Boating New Zealand

WORDS BY BAS SUCKLING

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

JONTY WHITE AND HARRY MILLER

feature

Vancouver Island

ollowing the usual rigmarole of

provisioning a small boat with six people’s

input into the shopping list, we set sail

from the Oak Bay marina in Victoria on a

sunny afternoon. The first few days saw us

covering a lot of ocean, flying through the

beautiful gulf islands with a mighty spinnaker run.

It was an opportunity to get used to each other and the

boat. To that end, the cramped sleeping quarters in the aft

quarter berth were improved significantly with the removal

of a protruding fire extinguisher bracket. We quickly figured

out the optimum sleeping arrangement involved at least one

couple camping on the nearest available beach.

After enjoying beautiful anchorages at Pender, Ruxton and

Savary Islands, we made our way up through to Desolation

Sound. Here we stopped at the majestic anchorage of Teakearn

Arm on West Redonda Island, where a large waterfall thunders

down into the inlet, fed from Cassell Lake nearby.

The bathymetry around this area is similar to parts of

Fiordland – over 80m deep 10m from shore – which meant

we had to stern-tie to a rusty shackle bolted into the rock, left

behind by loggers generations ago.

We were joined here by Sarah’s father Chris and uncle Don

F

CANADA

BRITISH

COLUMBIA

USA

WASHINGTON STATE

VANCOUVER

VICTORIA

Port Angeles

SEATTLE

Tofino

Port

Alberni

Port Hardy

Port McNeill

Campbell River

Nanaimo

Pacific Ocean