Vancouver Island To New Zealand

From Temperate Rainforest to the Bay of Islands, Tom and Vicky Jackson Report on a Season of Pacific Ocean Sailing.

- Vicky Jackson

We sailed nearly 10,000 miles in six months in 2014 to get our varnished S&S 40, Sunstone, to her winter home near Victoria, British Columbia (BC). As we flew home for the southern summer, we decided that having made this trip now three times over, such antics were not to be repeated. Our decline into aged decrepitude deserves more gentle treatment, so from April through July 2015 that’s what we got, cruising gently around Vancouver Island, before crossing the Pacific one last time to head home to New Zealand.

In April we found Sunstone still floating happily, although somewhat damp and green, at Robin and Jill Spear’s dock in Thetis Cove, Esquimalt Harbour. Some furious cleaning, saw us ready to go – at least as far as Friday Harbour in the US San Juan Islands – in order to renew Sunstone’s temporary importation to Canada. Returning to Sidney, BC, a quick haul-out and a few equipment replacements made Sunstone ready to go cruising, slowly and gently back in the San Juans.

The San Juans and the Canadian Gulf Islands form a convenient and very congenial archipelago. On both sides of the border there are numerous marine parks with sheltered anchorages and pleasant woodland hikes. Among the nicest in the San Juans are Fossil Bay on Sucia Island and Reid Harbour on Stuart Island.

Having cruised around the San Juans, we made our way north through the Gulf Islands stopping at previous favourites: Winter Cove on the north-west tip of Saturna Island, Princess Cove on Wallace Island and Pirates Cove on De Courcy Island. By way of contrast and variety we next anchored in False Creek, which is unusual for being located right in the centre of the city of Vancouver.