On Wed, 05 Apr 2006 22:24:21 -0700, Mark Borgerson wrote:

After more than 12 years, it's time for us to return to Desolation
Sound. We have a charter arranged for late August, starting in Powell
River and lasting a week. I'm assuming the mountains, inlets, forests
and scenery are still there.

Yup!

What has changed? Is there still a dock and store at Squirrel Cove?

Busier than ever! Espresso bar at the top of the stairs now. Burgers
still in demand -- good luck getting in for lunch!

Is Prideaux Haven still the busy spot in the area?

Yup.

Have fish farms filled all the interesting inlets?

About the same.

Is Hole-
in-the-Wall still a magical place?

Some folks have taken over that old dock/store on Read Island -- I can't
remember the name of it -- but they've been fixing it up, running a little
bakery, etc. Worth a stop.

Inquiring minds want to know!

Heriot Bay has been taken over and fixed up considerably. I heard they
were going to rebuild the marina over this winter. Nancy's Bakery in Lund
has moved to a much bigger new building, a few steps away. The pub in the
old hotel in Lund has been fixed up nicely too. The Laughing
Oyster restaurant in Malaspina Inlet is excellent. Pender Harbour is
booming, and the Garden Bay Hotel is livelier than ever. Further north,
Big Bay has closed and gone private. Dent Lodge has gotten exclusive and
expensive. Camp Cordero is still going strong. Fishing
in Campbell River has been suffering the last couple of years -- hardly
any boats off Cape Mudge.

I've noticed fewer boats around Desolation the last couple of years too --
higher fuel prices maybe? There's more traffic than ever at popular
spots, but in general it seems less.

Since our last visit (and the arrival of the kids), we've sailed (and
mostly motored) in the Gulf Islands and the San Juans. They're still
interestng and fun, but we decided to head a bit further north this
summer. The last time my wife and I went North of Nanaimo, Google was
probably just an experiment and the newsgroups were full of people with
good advice. I'm hoping only one of those things has changed. I'm sure
that thousands of people have kept Desolation Sound Yacht Charters in
business in the last decade, and a lot of those people have internet
access. Do any of them still read usenet newsgroups??


Who has been there since 1996 and who has stories to tell? (Yes, I HAVE
ordered the Dreamspeaker cruising guide!)

I've been up there the last 6(?) summers. I'll be there again this summer
too.

Are there other newsgroups that I should be reading?

Relatively speaking, hardly anyone reads Usenet anymore. There's a lot of
stuff on the web, but most of it is hard to weed through, not up to date,
etc.

So I've been thinking about starting a web portal/community site for BC
boating. If you have any ideas, email me.

Matt O.

"Call me Gilligan"
M/S Blurocket IV