This Warden Message alerts U.S. citizens traveling to or residing on the
Pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada or residing on Vancouver
Island of a tsunami wave which is anticipated to hit land beginning
about 5:30 am local time on March 11, 2011.  A massive 8.9 magnitude
earthquake hit the Pacific Ocean near Northeastern Japan at around 2:46
pm JST on March 11, causing damage with blackouts, fire and tsunami.
The large earthquake triggered a tsunami warning for countries all
around the Pacific ocean. British Columbia authorities are especially
warning the areas of the North Coast and the Haida Gwaii Islands; the
Central Coast including Bella Bella, Bella Coola, and Shearwater; and
the outer West Coast of Vancouver Island from Cape Scott to Court
Renfrew.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
<http://www.noaa.gov/> , "sea level readings confirm that a tsunami has
been generated which could cause widespread damage...A tsunami is a
series of waves and the first wave may not be the largest.  Tsunami wave
heights cannot be predicted and can vary significantly along a coast due
to local effects.  The time from one tsunami wave to the next can be
five minutes to an hour, and the threat can continue for many hours as
multiple waves arrive.  When no major waves are observed for two hours
after the estimated time of arrival or damaging waves have not occurred
for at least two hours then local authorities can assume the threat is
passed.  Danger to boats and coastal structures can continue for several
hours due to rapid currents.  As local conditions can cause a wide
variation in tsunami wave action, the all clear determination must be
made by local authorities."

NOAA anticipates that the waves will arrive at the Alaska/British
Columbia border beginning at 5:30 am; Vancouver Island at 6:20am;
Washington/British Columbia border at 7:00 am.

False Creek has several claims to fame for visiting boaters: you can anchor, and you can spend 3 hours tied up to the docks at Granville Island. Granville Island has a lovely market – Pike Place Market style for those familiar with Seattle.

Both times we have visited we have come in the winter and really enjoyed walking around Granville Island.

Still, we haven’t had the best luck in False Creek. The first time we came we had a very unpleasant interaction with one of the harbour ferry drivers in which he became increasingly verbally aggressive and then faked ramming us. We were in our dinghy at the time, in freezing cold water, and the prospect of getting tipped by him or his wake was not endearing. The local boater welcome office said that it wasn’t an uncommon behavior for them. Needless to say, we now refuse to use their (very convenient) service and will walk miles out of our way or inflate our dinghy in order to avoid giving them any of our cash.

Also, this time the city had shut down the Granville Island docks for the filming of Mission Impossible 4 (major bummer since this was our primary reason to visit) and so we couldn’t take our boat to provision although we did come back and use the docks with the dinghy. They used to have a fuel dock in False Creek but they no longer do. The first time we visited we were counting on fueling (our mistake – remember the old Waggoner?) and that was a big bummer.

The anchorage is fairly shoal for a boat of our draft but you can stay for quite a long time (permit required).

One big change which is very nice is that there is now a place on the North shore where you can take your dinghy. When we came before there was *nowhere* on the North shore to dinghy to which made visiting downtown very difficult.

False Creek is really the only option for most visitors who want to visit Vancouver on the cheap. However, with the luxury of cheap/free reciprocal moorage elsewhere, we much preferred Coal Harbor with its easy access to downtown and Stanley Park.

We left Princess Louisa and went to Pender Harbour for two nights and on the second night were treated to a full roast chicken, gravy, potatoes, carrots, baguette and wine dinner by Heather & Ted at their beautiful home in Madeira Park. We swapped cruising stories – theirs tropical and remote, ours frozen and local.

We left Pender to make some ground toward Vancouver and ended up sailing to Secret Cove. We anchored in the Southern inlet only to find ourselves getting iced in just after dark. With our powerful spotlight, we negotiated the tiny entrance to the Southern inlet in reverse and anchored in pitch dark in the main harbour where I spent a restless night imagining that I heard ice on the hull.

We left Secret Cove first thing in the morning toward Vancouver and after an hour or so of brisk sailing began bobbing around in the Strait of Georgia with no wind while gale warnings surrounded us. We decided to stop early at Gibsons rather than motor to Vancouver with the hopes of catching sailing wind the next day but Howe Sound really DID have a gale going and by the time we reached South of Gibsons we had 20-35 knots of outflow winds and we flew the rest of the way to Coal Harbour in Vancouver.