Tofino

We ♥ Tofino.

I have zero pictures right now except sunsets for another sunset post. The town is a bit like a Colorado mountain town in the high percentage of swanky outdoorsy types, dirtbag outdoorsy types, and slightly fluffy tourists. You can get a great coffee, a great ice cream or gelato and a mean burger in the same several block intersection. The grocery store will deliver to the docks and we loaded up again. The fuel dock is one stop shopping for fuel, water, propane and any odds and ends you might want (coolant for example...we ended up coming back to Tofino unexpectedly - more on that in our "how the engine scared the living daylights out of us by letting saltwater into the boat" post).

We spent our first visit to Tofino at the 4th Street Public docks. These were our first two nights of paid moorage since we left. We were on the NE corner which is a no-no for a boat that is as deep as ours but we had read the tide tables and knew (after using the handheld depth sounder across the length of our dock) we would have a few feet underneath us for those nights.

The second visit we anchored out and wowzers does a strong current move through here. We had 15-20 knots of wind but were pointed in a different direction because of the current. The nice part is that the current keeps the boat steady during the wind so the motion in the boat is very stable and relaxed.

Boaters complain about the tour boats and fishing boats that buzz through the anchorage at high speeds leaving wakes that rock the anchored boats. In fact we heard some yelling from two huge powerboats rafted together. I think Carol was ready to yell a few times himself although he generally agrees with my take. I am of the opinion that we are anchoring essentially in the median of a highway which is the financial lifeblood of the town and that we anchor here at our own risk. In general we found people considerate of us when we were in our dinghy and once they reached the channel in front of the town.

We are leaving Tofino to visit Quait Bay and after Quait Bay we will have stopped everywhere in Clayoquot on our list so we will be heading to Barkley Sound. Barkley is the last sound on the outside of Vancouver Island and we plan to spend the entire month of September in it before heading back to the civilized inside. However, to get out of Clayoquot from Quait we will be sailing past Tofino again so we plan to pull over for another few days here. We haven't met any towns we loved so far this trip so we are taking full advantage of this one.