saylke
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I recently read an article about Cedar Beach Ocean Lodge operated by Andy Lamb on Thetis Island. Any first hand experience out there from stays at the facility and the diving opportunities with them?
Cedar Beach
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sschlesi
Contributor
I went to Cedar Beach in a group of 4 divers for the March1/2 weekend this year. I enjoyed the trip and will make a point of returning to dive with them again.
Andy and his wife Vriginia keep a nice B&B on Thetis, there have two rooms with multiple single beds in each, along with a washroom for each room. The room we stayed in had 4 or 5 single beds, everything was nice and clean and well kept. The room contained an extensive library you can browse through, not surprisingly with a focus on marine biology, but there are plenty of other topics too.
There is also a large comfy living room and dining room. Detached from the house is a sauna, they also have kayaks if you want to go for a paddle. In the garage there is a charging station and a dryer for any moist gear.
Food was plentiful and good, as I recall the clam chowder that went out on the boat, and the chocolate cake baked the evening we arrived were the real winners. They make sandwiches to order for lunch on the boat and send along soup and fruit and water, coffee etc.
I can't come up with any complaints about the lodging/food. One thing to note if you want alcohol you have to bring your own as there is some rule preventing them from providing any for you.
On the diving side of things Peter Luckham and his wife (I forgot her name) provide the boat. Each evening we discussed the desires of the group and then Peter sets up the schedule based on the weather/tide predictions. They managed the process quite smoothly, we were up and fed and delivered to the boat without a hitch.
You can see Peter's boats at Scuba Diving guiding and boat charters on fat cat in the gulf islands bc canada. Groups larger than 2 go out on the 37ft. Xihwu explorer. The Xihwu explorer is pretty nicely set up for diving, with plenty of room for the five divers. 10 divers might be getting a bit crowded. The rear of the main deck is covered and a good place to get out of the sun, forward is a good place to get in the sun. There is a very roomy cabin that is a nice place to escape all the weather, wet gear is allowed in the cabin and that worked out nicely, just keep your dry stuff stowed in the provided rubbermaid bins. They had a flat screen in the cabin to review your photos/videos, Peter was still tweaking the setup to be compatible with all the different cameras out there. They also have an onboard compressor and can provide air fills between dives.
Of course the diving was the highlight of the trip. Andy accompanied us on most of our dives, in a group of 2 I don't believe Andy comes along as there is not enough room on the Fat Cat. Andy added a bunch of interesting info to the pre-dive briefing on the ecology of the site. They make a distinct point that you are diving on your own, Andy is not a dive guide but an interpreter. If you stay near to Andy he will point out various interesting creatures for you. If you don't want to follow Andy that is your choice. Andy was also collecting a few specimens during our dives. The best part of diving with Andy was after the dive when everybody had their gear off he'd dip into his specimen bucket and pull out some little creature he had picked up and then explain what he thought was interesting about it.
Andy knows a LOT about the marine life in this area and is able to recall many small details about each creature off the top of his head. The little tidbits like Andy showing a little clam and explaining how the stuff growing on the shell is a particular type of tunicate that is only found on this particular type of clam was the highlight for me. For any question you could come up with, Andy would essentially create an oral version of his Mystery Creature magazine column on the spot, just for you. You won't find that on just any ole dive charter.
On our first day of diving we dove near the north end of Galiano island. First in Porlier pass, using a new marker that Peter had just placed the day before. It was a big wall coated in thousands of white Plumose anemones, with various creatures squeezed in wherever they could find a space between the plumose. Porlier is fantastic and I highly suggest you go there if the weather and currents work out for you. Porlier is a big current site, I'd suggest trying to book a trip coinciding with a smaller exchange to increase the odds of diving there. Later we did a pair of dives on the walls along the north end of Galiano (I believe they called them Spanish Hills) which were also great dives, there were quite a few Puget sound King crabs around for our dives.
The next day we did a pair of dives near Chemainus. The first was on the 737, Peter was quite involved in the project to sink the 737 so this is a favorite of his. I thought this dive was only OK, it is interesting to see the life that has come to live on the 737 in the past couple years, and there is certainly life there, but not nearly the variety of they day before. I thought it was more interesting to get an up close look at the plane, and get a good feel for the size of it. "Flying" around the outside is quite different from the more common experience of squeezing into an economy seat. Our second dive was on a nearby rocky reef where Andy promised to find us some wolf eels, and there was a pair just where he said they'd be.
The second day of diving wasn't as good as the first and if possible I'd try to dive out near Galaino for the second day too. You may not be able to arrange this as it can make the schedule difficult, especially if the tide is low when you return and you cannot pass between Thetis and Kuper on the way back to Chemainus.
Overall I was very happy with the trip and will do it again. Peter posted some pics of our trip on his site, you can see them at xihwutrip.
Andy and his wife Vriginia keep a nice B&B on Thetis, there have two rooms with multiple single beds in each, along with a washroom for each room. The room we stayed in had 4 or 5 single beds, everything was nice and clean and well kept. The room contained an extensive library you can browse through, not surprisingly with a focus on marine biology, but there are plenty of other topics too.
There is also a large comfy living room and dining room. Detached from the house is a sauna, they also have kayaks if you want to go for a paddle. In the garage there is a charging station and a dryer for any moist gear.
Food was plentiful and good, as I recall the clam chowder that went out on the boat, and the chocolate cake baked the evening we arrived were the real winners. They make sandwiches to order for lunch on the boat and send along soup and fruit and water, coffee etc.
I can't come up with any complaints about the lodging/food. One thing to note if you want alcohol you have to bring your own as there is some rule preventing them from providing any for you.
On the diving side of things Peter Luckham and his wife (I forgot her name) provide the boat. Each evening we discussed the desires of the group and then Peter sets up the schedule based on the weather/tide predictions. They managed the process quite smoothly, we were up and fed and delivered to the boat without a hitch.
You can see Peter's boats at Scuba Diving guiding and boat charters on fat cat in the gulf islands bc canada. Groups larger than 2 go out on the 37ft. Xihwu explorer. The Xihwu explorer is pretty nicely set up for diving, with plenty of room for the five divers. 10 divers might be getting a bit crowded. The rear of the main deck is covered and a good place to get out of the sun, forward is a good place to get in the sun. There is a very roomy cabin that is a nice place to escape all the weather, wet gear is allowed in the cabin and that worked out nicely, just keep your dry stuff stowed in the provided rubbermaid bins. They had a flat screen in the cabin to review your photos/videos, Peter was still tweaking the setup to be compatible with all the different cameras out there. They also have an onboard compressor and can provide air fills between dives.
Of course the diving was the highlight of the trip. Andy accompanied us on most of our dives, in a group of 2 I don't believe Andy comes along as there is not enough room on the Fat Cat. Andy added a bunch of interesting info to the pre-dive briefing on the ecology of the site. They make a distinct point that you are diving on your own, Andy is not a dive guide but an interpreter. If you stay near to Andy he will point out various interesting creatures for you. If you don't want to follow Andy that is your choice. Andy was also collecting a few specimens during our dives. The best part of diving with Andy was after the dive when everybody had their gear off he'd dip into his specimen bucket and pull out some little creature he had picked up and then explain what he thought was interesting about it.
Andy knows a LOT about the marine life in this area and is able to recall many small details about each creature off the top of his head. The little tidbits like Andy showing a little clam and explaining how the stuff growing on the shell is a particular type of tunicate that is only found on this particular type of clam was the highlight for me. For any question you could come up with, Andy would essentially create an oral version of his Mystery Creature magazine column on the spot, just for you. You won't find that on just any ole dive charter.
On our first day of diving we dove near the north end of Galiano island. First in Porlier pass, using a new marker that Peter had just placed the day before. It was a big wall coated in thousands of white Plumose anemones, with various creatures squeezed in wherever they could find a space between the plumose. Porlier is fantastic and I highly suggest you go there if the weather and currents work out for you. Porlier is a big current site, I'd suggest trying to book a trip coinciding with a smaller exchange to increase the odds of diving there. Later we did a pair of dives on the walls along the north end of Galiano (I believe they called them Spanish Hills) which were also great dives, there were quite a few Puget sound King crabs around for our dives.
The next day we did a pair of dives near Chemainus. The first was on the 737, Peter was quite involved in the project to sink the 737 so this is a favorite of his. I thought this dive was only OK, it is interesting to see the life that has come to live on the 737 in the past couple years, and there is certainly life there, but not nearly the variety of they day before. I thought it was more interesting to get an up close look at the plane, and get a good feel for the size of it. "Flying" around the outside is quite different from the more common experience of squeezing into an economy seat. Our second dive was on a nearby rocky reef where Andy promised to find us some wolf eels, and there was a pair just where he said they'd be.
The second day of diving wasn't as good as the first and if possible I'd try to dive out near Galaino for the second day too. You may not be able to arrange this as it can make the schedule difficult, especially if the tide is low when you return and you cannot pass between Thetis and Kuper on the way back to Chemainus.
Overall I was very happy with the trip and will do it again. Peter posted some pics of our trip on his site, you can see them at xihwutrip.
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