Sailing holiday in British Columbia, Canada
| country: | Canada | ||||
| location: | British Columbia | ||||
| departures: | 2010: 23 Apr, 16 May, 23 Jun, 30 Jun, 7 Oct | ||||
| price: | From CA $3,025 (10 days) excluding flights.
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| more info: | Price includes all meals from lunch on the first day to breakfast on the last day, accommodation onboard ship, skipper, cook, naturalist, full use of all onboard facilities | ||||
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
the amazing things you'll be doing
Appreciate wilderness, respect wildlife and native cultures
These unique coastal adventures are the real way to see the Inside Passage. Aboard our small ships, we can take you to remote destinations and get up close with ancient native culture, wildlife and spectacular coastal scenery. All of our itineraries are different and no two trips are the same! Book on a Coastal Explorer and see why it is a skipper's favourite sailing...
We only travel in small groups of 12-16 guests. Small groups can watch in awe as a bear feeds on salmon. Smaller boats can float silently among the whales.
We adhere to the principals of ecotourism. We support local communities, promote conservation, ensure our practices are low impact, and provide guests with world-class knowledge about the coast, the wildlife and Native cultures. We travel together in a relaxed, fun style (our lives are here to be enjoyed). We contribute to a variety of whale and seabird research programs and support conservation groups working to protect coastal wilderness.
On each trip we are committed to introducing participants to the wonders of nature. An experienced naturalist leads daily walks ashore and often provides short evening slide shows or presentations. Participants find learning engages their curiosity, and enriches the trip immensely. On all our voyages we intentionally keep our itineraries flexible to take advantage of wildlife sightings, weather and tides, and the interests of the group.
These unique coastal adventures are the real way to see the Inside Passage. Aboard our small ships, we can take you to remote destinations and get up close with ancient native culture, wildlife and spectacular coastal scenery. All of our itineraries are different and no two trips are the same! Book on a Coastal Explorer and see why it is a skipper's favourite sailing...
We only travel in small groups of 12-16 guests. Small groups can watch in awe as a bear feeds on salmon. Smaller boats can float silently among the whales.
We adhere to the principals of ecotourism. We support local communities, promote conservation, ensure our practices are low impact, and provide guests with world-class knowledge about the coast, the wildlife and Native cultures. We travel together in a relaxed, fun style (our lives are here to be enjoyed). We contribute to a variety of whale and seabird research programs and support conservation groups working to protect coastal wilderness.
On each trip we are committed to introducing participants to the wonders of nature. An experienced naturalist leads daily walks ashore and often provides short evening slide shows or presentations. Participants find learning engages their curiosity, and enriches the trip immensely. On all our voyages we intentionally keep our itineraries flexible to take advantage of wildlife sightings, weather and tides, and the interests of the group.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Arrival. Participants will meet at the top of the Municipal Dock in Bella Bella. Upon boarding the ship, cabins will be assigned, an introductory safety briefing completed and then we set sail for the Koeye River located 45 kms. SE of Bella Bella. The Koeye watershed lies within the Great Bear Rainforest. It is more than simply a breath-taking watershed of epic proportions, it's a newly protected area in Heiltsuk territory that holds thousand year old towering cedar trees and an enormous amount of grizzly bears who feed on the swells of salmon on the Koeye River. It's also a very special place to the Heiltsuk First Nation who have their only bighouse on the mouth of the Koeye River. It is a place where the Heiltsuk sing their songs, dance their dances, where they heal, and where they transfer centuries of knowledge from elders to youth. |
| Day 2-9: | Onboard ship. Weather permitting, we will head out to the beautiful Goose group of islands in search of sea otters. We will spend time in Fitzhugh sound, Cape Caution and Queen Charlotte Strait, all areas known for encountering humpback whales. We now head into the waters of Johnstone Strait off the Northern end of Vancouver Island known for its population of Orca “Killer Whales”. The Johnstone Strait area once supported tens of thousands of Kwakwaka’wakw people. Village and midden sites are everywhere. Now, only a few villages remain inhabited. The modern Kwakwaka’wakw village of Alert Bay preserves their heritage in wonderful carvings, canoes and masks. We will have an opportunity to visit the U’mista Cultural Centre located in Alert Bay. Next we enter the pristine waters of Desolation Sound which are surrounded by steep evergreen mountains, all teeming with the wildest of wildlife. The scenery is less severe than many of the other sheer-sided waterways along the central coast, although just as majestic. Snowcapped peaks of the Coast Mountains soar from the tide line to heights of 7,875 feet (2400 m). Many yachtsmen regard the Desolation Sound area as not only the most beautiful and varied cruising area in BC, but equal to, if not better than any other area in the rest of the world. In the variety of spectacular scenery, warm summer climate, abundance of shelter and anchorages, this area is a microcosm of all that is best about salt water cruising in British Columbia. We will have an opportunity to visit Jedediah Island which was purchased by monies from the estate of Dan Culver, the former owner of our partner Bluewater Adventures and the provincial government along with an outpouring of donations from British Columbians. Jedediah Island was turned into a Class A provincial park, saving it from being sold to developers. Jedediah Island has much to offer in the way of diverse ecosystems to be studied; it has old growth forests of Douglas fir, western red cedar, arbutus, Rocky Mountain juniper and prickly pear cactus, and the seven kilometre long coastline includes a diversity of inter-tidal and coastal habitats with mud flats, tidal lagoons, rocky coves and numerous sand and pebble beaches. A portion of the island is made up of second growth forests and undisturbed old growth forests. About 10 percent of the island has been modified through clearing, logging, construction of buildings and agriculture. This beautiful island is a welcoming paradise just waiting to be explored, with many lessons to teach us about coastal environments and our impact on nature. |
| Day 10: | Departure. We will end our tour arriving in North Vancouver, BC at 2:00 pm on October 14th at the Waterfront Park dock in North Vancouver at the end of Chesterfield street, near the Lonsdale Quay Seabus Terminal. |
small group adventure holiday
Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 4-20 like minded travellers (depending on the trip, operator and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are travelling alone or with friends its good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travellers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as seeing new places. how this holiday makes a difference
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Environment
Operating a sailing vessel brings a number of challenges from an environmental impact point of view, which we try to minimize through refuse management practices that are the focus of many discussions on-board, on land and at the office. We recycle glass and tin along the coast, in the small communities we work out of. Tin, glass and cardboard in some cases require us to hop in a cab because the recycling facility is outside of town. Oil recycling is imperative and responsible disposal is essential. For plastics, this is more difficult, when attempts are made to measure how the carbon footprint created by hauling plastics back to port compares to flying them back from the outermost regions we work in, where there is just no economy of scale for recycling plastics. Paper is a major issue. We find that burning paper along the ocean shores at low tide is a better choice than adding to very small landfill sites on remote islands. The tide washes it up in the next cycle. We also compost out in deeper water. There are all sorts of marine organisms like crabs that are detritus feeders. Some of the organic matter, like orange peels, will float, so we avoid composting those in places that are more densely populated like the Gulf Islands. All the lights on-board are 12-Volt, so they run off the batteries. We don’t have incandescent lights; everything is compact fluorescent. The efficiency of our conventional power train is enhanced by the shape of sailing vessels which are slender and foster easier movement through the water than more blunt hulls. Community In all Canadian areas that are part of First Nations territory, we work collaboratively with them. In the Great Bear Rainforest—the most tangible example—we signed protocol agreements with two First Nations that carry 90% of our operating area. Hartley Bay’s Gitga’at people is one; and the Kitasoo Native Band at Klemtu is the other. Our activities generate $10 per person per night as a fee that is paid for the use of their territory. It is our recognition of their historic rights. We are committed to hiring local guides. At Hartley Bay, on all of our Great Bear Rainforest trips, we will spend a day with a guide hired through the Gitga’at development corporation. Typically, that is a Spirit bear-focused experience. We are committed to buying our food for the trips in local communities, despite this being at times a challenge for our cooks, because supplies are not as dependable and more menu flexibility is required as a result. There are 4 crew members, the captain, the chef, our resource person who is typically a biologist, and then our mate who assists the others, runs the zodiacs, assists with the kayaks and sails. We have an on-going wildlife log so all significant sightings are catalogued. We are travelling in parts of the coast that researchers seldom get to. For 20 years, we have been doing marine mammal sightings in conjunction with the Vancouver Aquarium and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |