Logbook: Queen Charlotte City – The Town

((Real time update: We just arrived on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in Kyuquot after a two day sail from the Southern tip of the Haida Gwaii. I’m posting a series of blog posts from the trip starting with Queen Charlotte City…after we got get a burger and some ice cream.))

This stop was the Northernmost apex of our trip. We are officially Southbound from here.

Queen Charlotte City is between the two main islands that make up the Haida Gwaii. It is where the ferry lands from Prince Rupert and about 4 miles from where the Gwaii Haanas park orientation center (informative) and museum (cool) are located.

It is a friendly community. We hitchhiked to and from the orientation center because there are no buses and we thought it would be more fun than paying $15 each way for a taxi. Both ways we were picked up within a few minutes by chatty, friendly people with cool stories.

Everywhere we went people were welcoming and spent time to help us find what we needed whether it was propane, a place to view the Stanley Cup games or suggestions of interesting places to go in the park.

 

The public docks are bustling and we ended up rafting to a large powercruiser after we were (nicely) asked to vacate our original choice which was the regular (but unmarked) spot for a fishing vessel.

We ended up meeting and hanging out with several cruising boats (SV Steel Eagle, SV Canick, MV Last Mango and MV Ibus).

We were there for 4 nights and had sunny weather so we spent time walking the streets and topped up on every available substance a cruising sailboat needs (grocery, diesel, water, propane).

We didn’t expect to enjoy the town so much. In our minds it was just a stop for provisions and for the orientation we needed to go into the park.  Good place.