Canada - Links

Tourism Links:

• Canadian Tourism Commission

Cruising and Yachting Associations:

• Bluewater Cruising Association
  http://www.bluewatercruising.org
  Offshore cruising club based in Vancouver that holds club nights in Vancouver, Calgary, Victoria, and Nanaimo, focusing on training and educating cruisers for bluewater voyages.
• British Colombia Sailing Assocation
  https://bcsailing.bc.ca/
• British Colombia Nautical Residents Association
  https://bcnr.org/
  Founded in 2010 by a group of liveaboard boaters to encourage responsible living aboard and to find solutions to issues faced by people who live on the water.

Sailing Links:

• Canadian Sailing Directions - free download
• Boaters Blue Pages - Marinas and Boating Services in British Columbia
  This website has an extensive listing of marinas and boating services throughout the Pacific Northwest.
• https://thenorthwestpassage.info/
  Everything you need to know about navigating the NW Passage, including transit statistics, routes, ice charts and links to weather and ice resources.
• Boat-Ed - https://www.boat-ed.com/
  Boat safety education materials.
• Useful VHF channel info. for Canada.

Cruising Articles:

Atlantic to Great Lakes - Choosing your Great Loop route - The Waterway Guide looks at the planning for this route.

Noonsite Introduction to the Intracoastal Waterway and the Great Loop
The Intracoastal Waterway surrounds the entire eastern and southern seaboard of the United States. Combined with major inland rivers and canals, it is possible to take a circular route from Florida to the Great Lakes and back to Florida, circumnavigating the eastern half of the United States entirely by water: this is known as the Great Loop. This report is an introduction for foreign cruisers who may not be familiar with procedures.

Canada: Cruising the Coast of British Columbia
Canadian Sailor JJ Holcman shares years of experience cruising this coastline with useful pilotage notes, local boating tips, a round-up of the best places to visit, and a wealth of weather and navigation links.

British Colombia: Wildlife Encounters
Barb Peck & Bjarne Hansen cruised the summer of 2023 from their home port in Esquimalt Harbour to the area around the Broughton Archipelago on board their Niagara '35 "Hoku Pa'a". Here they share the variety of wildlife they encountered along the way.

Sailing to Alaska
Seattle to Alaska and back, and everything in between. Three months, 4000 miles. Derek Hillen and his young family undertook this trip during the Summer of 2013 and his article is wonderful reading for anyone considering this trip.

Six and a half weeks sailing around Newfoundland - Summer 2015 (Bluewater Cruising)

The Wild Coast of Quebec - February 2016 (Cruising World)
A cruising family discovers the remote islands of Northeastern Quebec and navigates the rocky coastline.

Sailing to Mexico from the Pacific Northwest (Bluewater Cruising)

Cruisers Blogs:

• http://oceanecho1.blogspot.com/
  Lots of great info. if planning on cruising the west coast of British Colombia, by s/v Ocean Echo 1.
• https://www.coastapus.com/
  A blog dedicated to sailing on the west coast of British Columbia. The authors have been cruising the area for 10 years and with countless places to explore by sailboat, their blog shares destinations, anchorages, events, and general ideas for spending time on your sailboat in BC.
• Cruising Notes on the Coast of Labrador
  Collected by Pete and Annie Hill (1997) and Annie Hill and Trevor Robertson (2002).
• Northwest Passage 2015
  Family cruising boat, SY Salty, left Massachusetts USA in May of 2015 and arrived in Nome, Alaska four months later.

Other Links:

Marine Wildlife Viewing Regulations: Canada
This guide provides information about how far you need to be from marine mammals when viewing them in Canada. It also outlines illegal actions including, swimming or interacting with a marine mammal; moving a marine mammal (or enticing/causing it to move); separating a marine mammal from its group, or going between it and a calf.