Bamfield

When we got to Bamfield we thought we would anchor up in the end of the harbour. But it was quite crowded with sailboats and we didn’t feel it was a good spot. There is a small narrow entryway to a second little bay. We decided to go look at what was further inside. We ended up anchoring in the inner area – surrounded by crab pots – but only a couple of other boats. It was a good enough spot. But because we were expecting to be in Bamfield for 3 nights and the wind was supposed to come up – I sent an email to the Bamfield West Government dock to see if they could accommodate us for a couple of nights. We were please to find they could.

The next day we managed to pull the anchor and get to the dock between the downpours!

Although it rained heavy – at times ! Later in the afternoon the sun came out and we were able to go for a lovely walk on shore.

We spent two nights at the dock and had a number of nice walks along the Bamfield West Boardwalk.

We really enjoyed walking around Bamfield.

The second day we decided to walk to a beach called Brady’s Beach.

It was a difficult walk for Jim and his bad hip and me and my gimpy ankle joint ! But we persevered! Jim said in 1978 it was just a narrow trail to the beach.

Most of the people on the west side of Bamfield have small golf cart type vehicles to drive as there is no road access to the west side – only the east side. There are water taxi’s going back and forth regularly. We did not go to the east side.

It was a long day. We ordered a pizza from a local place – but we won’t go into that.

We left Bamfield at 5 am to travel the 42 miles to Port Renfrew during the calmest time of the day. Before the afternoon winds come out. We motored out into the middle of the harbour and put out the poles and the paravanes before traveling out into the west coast swell and surf !

It was as a pretty good travel day. The wind was mostly light. But there was a good metre of swell at times and it was nice to have the paravanes out.

Once we got close to Port Renfrew Jim was able to motor past a fishing boat that used to work for him years ago – the Belina. We took a bunch of photos of the boat fishing with the big camera – not yet downloaded.

We did not stay at the end of Port San Juan where the government dock is located in Port Renfrew. It was as windy and lots of wave action. There is a small little shallow bay with a beach about 1/3 the way in on the north side that is the preferred spot to anchor. Still lots of swells but a much better and less windy.

The beach was loaded up with tents and hikers finishing up their walk along the west coast trail. We figured there were 40 -50 hikers. We counts over 30 tents. We arrived at the anchorage around noon and watched them arrive over the afternoon and early evening. We figured the water taxi would pick them up in the morning and drop a new batch off. The West Coast Trail goes from here to Bamfield.