Getting on the Outside: The West Coast of Vancouver Island by Greg & Lori Bernard

The West Coast of Vancouver Island offers some of the wildest, most remote cruising that the West Coast of BC has to offer. For sailors, it also offers 350 miles of potential downwind ocean sailing in short, manageable sections. For many Pacific Northwest sailors, this trip is serves as preparation for offshore sailing adventures. It also offers many miles of secluded, sheltered inlets and fiords, with many excellent anchorages, fine sandy beaches, small coastal villages, great fishing and abundant wildlife. With a keen weather eye, these features are also available to those travelling by power. This course will help to prepare boaters – power and sail – for voyages south from Port Hardy to Victoria (or Neah Bay), as well as provide strategies for experiencing a taste of the west coast by sailing north up Juan de Fuca to Barkley Sound. Topics will include:

• The boat and equipment
• Personal readiness and preparation
• Tides and Currents, and strategies for optimizing speed over ground
• Routing options and voyage planning for passing through “the gates”
• Summer weather patterns and forecast interpretation
• Interpreting wave height forecasts, and strategies for dealing with ocean waves
• Select anchorages
• Useful reference material
• Provisioning
• Fishing basics
• Tips we’ve learned for maximizing our time “off the grid”

Where applicable, there will be an opportunity to practice some of the necessary planning skills in the comfort of a classroom. We will also share stories of our own adventures to these waters, and in the process, inspire you to consider cruising to these magnificent waters.