Safe Boat Havens

Early in the 1990’s, the Council of B.C. Yacht Clubs, through its members, embarked upon the task of formulating a catalogue of safe anchorages throughout the coast of British Columbia Intended for the specific use of small vessels where there would be reasonable confidence of secure anchoring on arrival and a peaceful night.

The “Provincial Boat Havens” document lists 126 locations in three categories:

A. Destination Harbors.
These harbors are located at strategic intervals; approximately one day travel apart, and provide maximum
shelter from most weather conditions and possible long-term anchorage.

B. Settled weathers overnight Anchorage.
Weather permitting, these give good protection,

C. Scenic, Temporary or Emergency Anchorage.
Varying degrees of protection depending on weather conditions. Some of these sit es are identified for their scenic value and not always suitable as anchorage. The emergency locations are noted as. Harbour of refuge.

The locations can also be viewed on Google Earth by importing this KMZ file.
(Note: The KMZ file can be converted to a GPX file which can be read by popular navigation apps like Navionics)

Boating on the Okanagan Lake

The 2023 edition of the Sun Cruiser is an excellent guide to boating on the lake.  Unfortunately, after publishing for many years, there are no new issues planned.  Hopefully this answers any questions people might have regarding places to moor on the Lake.


Okanagan Sun Cruiser

BC Marine Trails website

The BC Marine Trails website is geared toward non-motorized coastal recreation. However, we have heard from small boaters that they appreciate the detailed site information on our website because they are often anchoring their boats and then using paddleboards or kayaks to land at the sites we list on our map. We also provide on our map information from First Nations communities with whom we have done collaborative site review work. As well, we are very excited to be able to offer a site condition reporting layer where visitors can access the most recent reports and photos about sites.

Our aim is to shift the culture of coastal recreation to a place where visitors to coastal sites do their part to ensure they leave the site even more natural than they found it. That might mean dismantling user-created fire rings, removing or collecting and stowing marine debris, clipping a headland trail to avoid trampling fragile vegetation.

There is a public version of the map that can be easily viewed by all. The member map contains more detailed information about each site, allows for trip planning, site selection, and provides access to the Site Condition Report layer as well as the Canadian Hydrographic Services layer (visible when the use zooms in to a smaller area).

https://www.bcmarinetrails.org/

LinkDescription
https://waterfrontprotection.org/Waterfront Protection Coalition (WPC) – Advocating for fair consultation and representation on the proposed Dock Management Plan (DMP) and amendments to the Land Act
https://waterfrontprotection.org/content/files/2024/02/DMP-Financial-Impact-Assessment.pdfFinancial Impact Assessment of the Dock Management Plan by WPC
https://bcmpfs.caMarine Park Forever Society
https://mersociety.org/about/what-we-do/Marine Education and Research Society: Research on whales
https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/mammals-mammiferes/whales-baleines/srkw-measures-mesures-ers-eng.htmlOverview of 2024 management measures to support Southern Resident killer whale recovery
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