Offgrid Enthusiasts

There is something special about the moment you finally leave the dock.

After all the planning, provisioning, packing, repairs and last-minute jobs, you untie the lines, point the bow in the right direction and realize: the trip is actually happening.

For us, that moment had been a long time coming.

This was the beginning of our biggest boating adventure yet — roughly 20 to 30 days exploring the coast of British Columbia and making our way toward Desolation Sound. And our first stop was somewhere familiar: Thormanby Island.

The Night Before the Adventure

In hindsight, our trip really started the night before we left.

We had already brought down our coolers, food, clothes, dog gear and pretty much everything we thought we could possibly need for the next month. I had provisioned for close to 30 days, knowing that once we got farther into Desolation Sound, groceries would become more limited — and considerably more expensive.

We loaded plenty of drinking water as well. When you’re planning to spend weeks travelling by boat and anchoring in remote areas, being self-sufficient becomes a pretty big part of the adventure.

Meanwhile, Jared was still working on the boat.

Late into the evening he was finishing up the installation and connections for our solar panels, trying to get everything ready before departure.

The whole reason we had packed the boat ahead of time was so that the following day could be simple: arrive at the boathouse, get aboard and go.

And somehow, that’s exactly what we did.

Six Hours North

We headed out with light winds — only around 5 km/h — and relatively calm seas.

After the chaos of getting ready, it felt almost surreal.

We settled the boat in at around 8 knots, pointed north and watched the coastline slowly pass by.

There was nowhere we needed to be that afternoon. No traffic. No schedules.

Just us, the dogs, a fully provisioned boat and weeks of adventure ahead.

About six hours later, Thormanby came into view.

And immediately, it felt familiar.

Back to Thormanby Island

We’ve visited Thormanby before, although on much smaller boats.

We’ve made the trip in one of our Stryker inflatable boats, and we’ve also come over in our aluminum fishing boat. This time was different.

This wasn’t just a day trip.

This was home for the night — and the first anchorage of a much bigger journey.

One of the things we’ve always loved about Thormanby is that it still feels rugged.

The beaches are lined with huge pieces of weathered driftwood, backed by forest and sections of sandstone shoreline. There is something about all of that driftwood that we love. It isn’t manicured or polished. It looks exactly like a wild BC beach should look.

Thormanby sits just offshore from the Sunshine Coast near Halfmoon Bay and Secret Cove and is accessible by boat or water taxi. There are no grocery stores or restaurants waiting for you when you arrive, which is part of what makes it feel like such an escape.

It also has a pretty great bit of history.

The Thormanby Islands were named in 1860 by Captain George Richards of the Royal Navy after a racehorse named Thormanby won the Epsom Derby that year. Richards apparently had a thing for horse racing, because several nearby geographical features received horse-racing-inspired names as well.

Today, the islands are known for their beaches, paddling, boating and two provincial parks — Buccaneer Bay Park and Simson Park. Buccaneer Bay is particularly popular with boaters because its large sheltered bay offers anchorage in most summer conditions. The protected foreshore also contains seagrass meadows and sand shoals that provide habitat for shorebirds, salmon, rockfish, sandlance and Dungeness crab.

But for us, the attraction is much simpler.

It’s beautiful.

Anchor Down. Tender Out.

We found ourselves a spot in the calm bay and dropped anchor, letting out roughly 200 feet of chain.

After spending most of the day travelling, it was time to get off the big boat.

We lowered our Stryker tender, loaded up the dogs and headed toward shore.

This is one of our favourite parts of travelling this way. Once the main boat is anchored, the tender becomes our little adventure vehicle. It gets us to beaches, coves and places we would otherwise never be able to explore.

The dogs were more than ready to get their feet on land.

So were we.

We walked along the beach, climbed around the driftwood and took in the fact that, after all the preparation and craziness of the previous week, we had actually made it.

Our Desolation Sound adventure had begun.

And for a little while, everything felt pretty perfect.

A Few Problems Along the Way

Of course, it wouldn’t be one of our trips without something going wrong.

While we were underway, our autopilot started acting up and eventually stopped working properly.

Then we realized one of our solar panels wasn’t producing power either.

Not exactly what you want to discover on Day One of a trip where you’re planning to spend several weeks living primarily off-grid.

Thankfully, after some troubleshooting, Jared managed to get both systems working again.

Problem solved.

Or so we thought.

Uh Oh…

Later that evening, Jared went outside to check our anchor.

He decided to bring in a little bit of chain.

Nothing happened.

He tried again.

Still nothing.

Our anchor windlass wasn’t working.

And we had approximately 200 feet of chain out.

That changed things.

We checked the weather forecast for the following day and started figuring out our options. Our original plan had been to eventually visit friends on Texada Island, so we decided the best move would be to leave Thormanby the following afternoon and head toward Texada.

We also made a call to The Harbour Chandler in Nanaimo to see if they had a replacement windlass.

They did.

That was the good news.

The slightly more complicated part was figuring out how we were going to get it from Nanaimo to us while we were travelling by boat.

Fortunately, our friends Dennis and Tracey were also heading north to meet us in Desolation Sound with our aluminum fishing boat.

A plan started coming together.

But that is a story for the next stop.

The Adventure Had Officially Begun

Our first day didn’t exactly go according to plan.

We had an autopilot problem.

A solar issue.

And by the end of the night, a windlass that had decided it was done participating in our vacation.

But sitting at anchor off Thormanby that evening, none of it really mattered.

We were finally out here.

The boat was stocked.

The tender was ready.

The dogs had explored their first beach.

And ahead of us were weeks of boating, fishing, hiking, remote anchorages and exploring one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in British Columbia.

We had absolutely no idea what the next few weeks were going to throw at us.

As it turned out, Day Two was about to change our plans considerably.

Next stop: Texada Island.