Aug 01 2008
Five year wait for a slip on the BC coast
No vacancy in Gerrans Bay
We’re back in BC now and scouting around for a slip for SolMate.
In Vancouver, it was shocking to learn that most marinas have waiting lists with a couple hundred names on it – some marina offices have closed their lists, estimating a wait time of over 7 years.
So we drove north (and hopped a ferry) to the Sunshine Coast, expecting that things might be better outside the city.
At Secret Cove Marina, manager Scott Rowland would not even accept my name for his wait list, estimating that there were five years worth of boat owners already on it.
At Gibson’s Marina, same thing. Even at the municipal wharf in Gibsons, there was a waitlist of over 200 names, but the manager there kindly took our name and phone number.
Anyway, we have put our names on waitlists in about 6 different marinas now.
Egmont Marina
Yesterday we took another trip by car looking at marinas in Pender Harbour area and north. Same situation everywhere. But in the process of driving around in this incredibly folded marine neighborhood, we realized that although this has been an interesting exercise, it really doesn’t have much bearing on our plans. Because if and when we get SolMate back to Canada, we can then actually look for a place. We’re confident we can find a space when we actually need one.