Vacation Time. For Real.

August 20, 2022

Now that Mark was back and rested from the extra day we spent on the Sunshine Coast, we were ready to leave and explore places we hadn't been before.

We let go of our mooring and headed out with our sights set on going north, ultimately to Hornby Island. This was a place I wanted to go last year, and although not that far away, it seemed so far to go on our sailboat. Like there was some invisible line past Nanaimo that we'd just avoided crossing for some reason.

We weren't going to make it in one day, so we decided to stop at Buccaneer Bay on Thormanby Island. I'd heard it had a lovely beach. The sail was great, a bit rolly, which the dogs weren't a fan of, but we had some decent wind to push us along. We raised the spinnaker again for a couple hours before heading into the bay and putting the anchor down.

Buccaneer Bay was full of boats when we got there, but we found a place on the bay's edge a solid distance away from the beach. We weren't the only ones who'd heard about the beach. It was packed on the weekend. I'd have to say this was our least favourite anchorage so far. It was full of people crowding on the beach, the anchorage was busy and windy, and there wasn't anything to do onshore other than be at the small beach. We were pretty happy to leave after two nights.

We turned the bow North and set off. We thought about stopping at Jedidiah Island on the way for a night. While we were motoring (there was no wind) over, an old guy who knew more than we did, zipped past us into the anchorage we were heading to. Unfortunately, the space would only fit one boat, so we decided to come back sometime in the future and continue our trip to Hornby.

The wind nicely funnelled between the islands, and we turned the engine off and slowly tacked up the channel. I took this time to shower, wash clothes and make some lunch. When I was done with all these chores, we were around the islands and heading toward our final stop. I came back on deck just in time to see a pod of whales start popping up all around us. After about 15 minutes, they moved on, and so did we.

We cruised into Tribune Bay a little worried it would be full. We didn't realize how big the bay was, and there was a ton of space. We anchored, what we thought, was far back to avoid the crowds. We also learned quickly that the dogs couldn't go ashore on the beach in Tribune Bay and that we'd need to go to Little Tribune instead...which is also the local nude beach. Whatever. It was only a bit weird when we were offered help moving the dinghy back into the water after we pulled it too far onto the shore.

Little Tribune Bay beach was nicer than its larger and more famous neighbour. There weren't many people competing for beach space and trying to outdo their neighbours with their music. Plus, the dogs could enjoy a nice swim. It was so hot that even Taj joined in with the swimming one day.

The weather was still hot, and the water was 25 degrees. We didn't waste any time going swimming. Honestly, we ended up falling into a pretty nice routine here. We spent our days swimming and touring the island. Typically we started each day with breakfast at Verizo Cafe with the dogs, afternoons swimming and finishing the day with sundowners on the deck....or a cheeky swim in the bioluminescence at night.

We probably would have stayed for the rest of our time off if we hadn't heard from our friends that were heading out to Galiano in a couple of days. So we enjoyed one last night swimming in the glowing waters and pulled up the anchor the next morning with our sights set on Galiano Island.

NM Sailed: 74