Newcastle Island – Riveted

Airship to Alaska | Day 3 | Newcastle Island to Lund, BC

Laura Domela — Tue, 10 May 2016 17:40:50 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

Airship at dusk, last night at our Newcastle Island moorage (with Nanaimo in the background):

We left Newcastle Island this morning around 8am. We originally thought we'd head up the east side of Vancouver Island to Comox, but the weather was so beautiful and the conditions so calm, we opted to cross the Strait of Georgia today and headed for Lund, BC.

Wanna know how calm it was? This calm:

It was this calm the entire 8 hours 50 minutes and 62.6 nautical miles of our cruise.

Oh look! A cloud!!

While we were cruising along on this long calm stretch on the Strait of Georgia, our VHF on scan as usual, it stopped on Channel 16 for an announcement that said something very close to this:"This is Comox Coast Guard Radio…Comox Coast Guard Radio…Comox Coast Guard Radio. The integration of Comox Coast Guard Radio with Victoria Coast Guard Radio is now complete. This is the final broadcast from Comox Coast Guard Radio. It has been a pleasure serving the maritime community for the past 108 years. Comox Coast Guard Radio…Out."

Then…silence. Kevin and I looked at each other and said "Whoa!" We both teared up a little, even. He sounded so sad!! A few boats (including BC Ferries) came on the radio to thank them for the service. It was quite a thing to hear while out on the water. Read more about the history of Comox Coast Guard Radio here and news about the closure here. Total bummer.

We arrived in Lund around 4:30pm and got a spot in the Lund Small Yacht Harbor transient dock. (23.56 Canadian dollars, which is just over 18 bucks US…deal!)

We were in Lund on our way back from Alaska last year, but we didn't stay overnight. We'll probably go back over to Nancy's and pick up a cinnamon roll or two, and then head for Desolation Sound in the morning.

Here's today's track from Newcastle Island/Nanaimo to Lund:

Airship to Alaska | Day 2 | Roche Harbor to Newcastle Island, BC

Laura Domela — Tue, 10 May 2016 10:22:47 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

We left Roche Harbor this morning after a lovely evening with near perfect weather. Check out the light on the chapel last night!

At sunset, the Roche Harbor Color Guard does a flag ceremony where they take down the flags (the Washington State flag, the Canadian flag, the British flag, and then the United States flag), complete with soundtrack: Oh Canada, God Save the Queen, Taps, etc. Oh, and a canon salute. They don't mess around here in Roche Harbor…they take their pageantry seriously. We watched from the top deck of Airship:

We popped up this morning and headed for Canada!

Totem pole on the shore (from the back) as we left Roche Harbor:

We called in to Canpass to get cleared through Canada Customs. (Canpass is cool! You get pre-approved as a low risk traveler, and most of the time you can just call in, answer a few questions, and get your clearance number and you're good to go.) We didn't have to stop at Customs or anything. Super convenient!

We headed for Ganges Harbour on Salt Spring Island for a little more provisioning (okay, for wine). You can't bring more than two bottles each across the border, so we stocked up for the next couple weeks. On the way into Ganges Harbour we saw this seal just hanging out like this. I'm not sure what he was doing…maybe getting a little sun on his fins?

We did a run through Mouat's but didn't find anything we needed (which is weird, because they have everything), so headed over to do our grocery and wine shopping. The public dock is so convenient for this!

After groceries we stopped for a burger at the Burger Bar. Delicious, with a terrific view of the harbour:

After our short stop in Ganges Harbour, we headed north toward Nanaimo. We figured we should make miles while it was calm.

We timed it so we could arrive at Dodd Narrows a little more than an hour before slack. The current was still running about 4.9 knots (with us) when we got there, which was no big deal. We just sort of coasted on the current and weren't too affected by all the swirlies. I took some video, but there's no way the internet will let me upload video right now, so I may add that to this post later.

Nice rock:

We decided to stay across from Nanaimo at Newcastle Island Marine Park. There are a bunch of mooring balls out front (and some dock space). We grabbed a mooring ball for twelve bucks Canadian for the night.

View across to the BC mainland from our moorage:

We took the dinghy to shore to pay up and explore a bit. We were here a couple years ago (with the Airstream, and our bikes) and highly recommend a stop.

Newcastle Island is populated with MANY purple martins. (Note the little birdhouses on most of the pilings.)

Baby geese! (Nanaimo in the background.)

We didn't go hiking this time on the island because it was getting late and we wanted to take the dinghy over to the Dinghy Dock Pub on Protection Island before dark.

You can grab a ferry over here from Nanaimo…sounds like they come back on the hour every hour to take you back to town.

We had a nice quiet evening…leftover risotto and caesar salad for dinner. I tried to get this blog post done but it wasn't happening. Internet was there, but super slow. So I'm finishing it up now as we head across the Strait of Georgia toward Lund. Another day with glorious weather (and calm seas)…we figured we should make miles while we can do so in such comfort!

Today's track from Roche Harbor to Newcastle Island BC (with a stopover in Salt Spring Island). 7 hours 54 minutes, 54.1 nautical miles:

Newcastle Island, British Columbia

Laura Domela — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 22:36:48 +0000

This afternoon after finishing up most of a work day, we headed by bike back into downtown Nanaimo and took the little ferry over to Newcastle Island. That's Newcastle on the left, and Protection Island on the right.

Newcastle Island is a marine provincial park just across the harbor, and has 22km of hiking and biking trails, a pavillion with a snack bar, and a tent campground. You can bring your camping gear over on the ferry and use one of their wheeled carts to tow it over to the campground. Pretty sweet! Here's the ferry we took on the way over:

The ferry ride costs $9 Canadian per adult round trip, and the bikes are an extra buck.

Here are the bikes bungeed to the upper deck:

The Newcastle Island ferry landing:

Looking back across the harbor to Nanaimo:

From the Newcastle Island website, this'll give you a bit more info about the island:

A significant place utilized by the Snuneymuxw people for thousands of years and traditionally known as Saysutshun, Newcastle Island is a wondrous escape from the bustling urban center of Nanaimo just across the harbour. Alongside the strong First Nations presence and culture on the island, it is also home to many rich histories which include coal mining, a sandstone quarry, and herring salteries, all of which make Newcastle Island a must-see eco-tourism destination for those visiting Nanaimo.

There was a sailboat regatta happening out past the island:

The bike path is much more of a mountain bike style path than a road bike style path, but our bikes handled it just fine:

This is Mallard Lake, in the middle of the island:

Bike Fridays are such great travel bikes!!

Back to the ferry landing:

This is the cute little tiny ferry we took back across the harbor, with 5 bikes and 12 passengers!!

And here are some of the bikes strapped onto the port side and stern, for scale:

Here's a map of our route from the campground and back:

We're doing laundry now and grilling some tuna for fish tacos. I think we're going to do a little day trip up to Courtenay tomorrow. There's an annual (annual! not weekly!) (the 44th annual) Saturday market going on that sounds interesting. Then on Sunday we'll head over to Tofino! We're having a blast up here.