Sailing from Vancouver to Tofino - Any tips?

Rebecca Ericson

Rebecca Ericson

Member I
Hi all,

We're planning our next trip, as sailors growing in competence and confidence. We did Vancouver to Victoria recently, and now we want to push ourselves a bit more and try Tofino. I hear the weather can be very changeable and is to be taken seriously on the west coast of Vancouver Island. If we pay close attention to weather, should we have a reasonably comfortable passage?

Any tips are welcome. We're still learning the local currents, winds and tides.

Best,


Rebecca
 
southofvictor

southofvictor

Member III
Blogs Author
We’ve done that trip once so far. It was excellent! We did it in shorter hops. Becher Bay - Port Renfrew - Bamfield. Then we spent two weeks exploring from Barkley Sound up to Hot Springs Cove. On the return we did Uclulet - Neah Bay - Port Angeles - Port Townsend (we were headed back to Seattle).

We left early each day to catch the ebb current without wind blowing against it. More motoring / less sailing than I would have liked but it was smooth. Not sure what the current timing is when you’re planning to go but I’d say the biggest thing to avoid while going out is an afternoon strong wind against the ebb, unless you’re into that sort of punishment.

Once up there it can be foggy so make sure your radar is in good shape if possible.

Have fun. It’s one of the most spectacular places we’ve been. Here’s a link to the blog post I made about it.
 
H

hjohnson

S/V Sagres
Went to Tofino the long way last summer, though not on my Ericson. We rounded Cape Scott and worked our way south, having an absolutely glorious day rounding the Bruce Peninsula.

The thing we had that I would not want to do this without was reliable real-time weather data that goes beyond the weather radio. We had an Iridium Go which gave us the data we needed.

Our plan for next summer, though, is to sail our E27 up to Barkley Sound and the Broken Group.
 
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