For new and experienced sailors
The Broughtons and Vancouver Island – Kelsey Bay to Port Hardy
by Anne and Laurence Yeadon-Jones
Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2024
$49.95 / 9781990776991
Reviewed by Marianne Scott
[Editor’s Note: The following review was originally published in Pacific Yachting]
*
Since 1998, Anne and Laurence Yeadon-Jones have been publishing cruising guides for British Columbia’s sailors. This latest revised fourth edition of the Broughtons and Vancouver Island from Kelsey Bay to Port Hardy displays the same careful attention to detail that have made their guides unique and popular. The book begins with a gorgeous cover photo of their 36-foot Sparkman and Stephens sloop, Dreamspeaker, anchored in front of Lacy Falls in Tribune Channel, an image which makes you want to sail there yourself.
The couple have once again produced their standard, easy to follow format of the data they’ve gathered: each waterway and bay has its own page or pages. And each location is illustrated by Laurence’s hand-sketched, watercolour charts, which have become the former architect’s trademark. Annotations may include current strength, kelp patches, rocks, kayaker routes, shoreline buildings, and marina outlines. As with all cruising guides, these chartlets do not replace full-scale, authorized hydrographic charts, but they do note obstacles and dangers, and small boat drawings indicate possible anchoring spots, including their exposure to winds. The guide also features some illuminating photography.
The Broughtons are a complicated archipelago, with at least 200 islands, waterways with strong currents, only a few places to provision, several marine parks, but also numerous anchorages that are serene and private. They remind me of the Swedish Skärgård in the Baltic Sea, except that those islands are quite flat, while many of this BC island group have rangy, steep sides densely colonized by trees.
The guide includes planning charts and divides the entire area into sections, then subdivides them into key destinations. They identify the Kwakwakaʼwakw First Nations who lived here for thousands of years and have left middens and former clam gardens as evidence. Captains Cook and Vancouver explored here for the British Crown in the 1870s followed by settlers who left their own logging, farming, mining, and fishing remnants.
The guide is complete, well organized, and useful to both new and experienced sailors. It incorporates local knowledge. Most of all, it makes me want to board the sailboat and explore this vast, intricate archipelago.
*
Marianne Scott is an award-winning Victoria-based writer who has specialized in marine topics since she and her husband, David, sailed from Victoria to French Polynesia in a 35-foot sailboat. Marianne has written for many marine and other publications in Canada, the U.S., and Australia and is a long time volunteer at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia. She authored Distilleries of Vancouver Island: A Guided Tour of West Coast Craft and Artisan Spirits (Touchwood Editions, 2021), co-authored Vancouver boat-builder Ben Vermeulen’s memoir, Before I Forget (2015), authored Ocean Alexander — The First 25 Years (2006), and wrote Naturally Salty — Coastal Characters of the Pacific Northwest (Touchwood Editions, 2003). [Editor’s Note: Marianne Scott has reviewed books by M. Wylie Blanchet, John Dowd & Bea Dowd, and Ron Holland for The British Columbia Review.]
*
The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster