June 2-3, Wallace Island to Nanaimo

Two relatively short days.  On the second, we had a short and very pleasant paddle, mostly with a tailwind, from Wallace Island to the Provincial Marine Park at Pirate's Cove on DeCourcy Island.  Pirate's Cove is A beautiful provincial marine park that gets a lot of traffic from yachts and small boats.

Pirate's Cove

The third was another relatively short day. Left Pirate's Cove at a leisurely hour, and paddled with the tide through to Newcastle Island, off Nanaimo. Rode the tail end of the flood through False Narrows, in order to avoid the apparently very busy Dodd Narrows with their associated strong currents. No problems at all.

The day got warmer and clearer in the afternoon, as we passed industrial development East of Nanaimo, including lots of log booms and tugs moving rafts. Then, beautiful sailboats, including some classic, gaff-rigged craft in the Nanaimo marinas and moored in the harbor.

Newcastle Island has a very convenient passenger ferry that makes it possible to quickly cross to downtown Nanaimo (such as it is), so we headed over about mid-afternoon, stocked up on some things we were short on (sugar, snacks and a few other necessities) and got a passable dinner at a local fish and chips place. The area has a very beautiful waterfront park which was getting a lot of traffic, but not much else going on in the waterfront area. A little disappointed, actually.

Headed back to Newcastle around 7, and had a nice night.