On the 20th, we continued on to the nearby town of Ucluelet to check it out and go to a fishing supply store so I could get some advice and supplies. We stayed in a marina here, easier to re-provision, and the price was very reasonable (especially compared to the marinas in Tofino). I ended up getting some great advice from a guy who’d been fishing down in Baja California before and set me up with a good rod and a very nice reel. Heading out from Ucluelet on the 22nd past the Broken Group to the anchorage for Lucky Creek I ended up pulling in a Coho salmon with the new gear.

The entire reason to anchor there is Lucky Creek; at high tide, you take your dinghy up the creek up until you get to the falls (tour boats go there too!) where the daring can play in the cold water. We were not daring.

We spent the next several days at two different anchorages in the Broken Group, one just north of Wouwer Island (right around 48°51’56.0″N 125°21’09.3″W), the other in Effingham Bay (48°52’40.5″N 125°18’37.6″W). In both we took the dinghy around and rowed our kayak & paddleboard around the bays. In Effingham Bay one afternoon a small boat came in and gave us a free, very large Chinook salmon (obviously having caught one more than their limit).

In heavy fog (and thus no wind) on the 28th we motored from Effingham Bay to Port Renfrew, where we anchored outside the small town, only to leave the next morning to head to Sooke. While we motored in the calm in heavy fog towards Sooke, a humpback whale surfaced behind us to starboard within about 50 feet!

Thankfully the wind picked up after the first few hours and we were able to sail during the early afternoon before motoring into the bay outside of Sooke, where we docked at the Sooke Harbour Authority for two nights.