Vancouver & Vancouver Island diving

[large_diver]

Hi all,

I am going on an Alaska cruise this summer (1st week of July 2006) for a family reunion -- cruise starts and finishes in Vancouver. Would love to get in some Vancouver-area diving before boarding the cruise. As I won't have a ton of time (1-2 days), based on other posts I've read, a good option seems to be to take the ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo and use one of the area charter operators such as Ocean Explorers. I would bring my drysuit and own gear with me (ex tanks/weights). A couple of questions:

• Is it feasible to get back and forth on the ferry from Vancouver and do some diving in 1 day or would I need to overnight in Nanaimo before/after? Approx. how long is the ferry trip?

• I will have non-divers with me (wife and kids 9 & 11) -- is there much for them to do in the Nanaimo area? They are outdoors-oriented...hiking/kayaking, etc. Trying to decide whether to let them tour Vancouver (we've never been there) or come over to the Island with me.

• I am doing a Sat-Sat cruise...so my diving would be Wed-Friday before the cruise. Do charter operators generally operate on weekdays during the summer months?

Thanks for your help!

-Chris

 

[Darnold9999]

You can do 2 dives easily and possibly a third dive. The third will be twilight so figure it as a night dive - depending on time of year. Ferry runs every two hours on the half hour. See http://www.bcferries.com/schedules/mainland/hbna-current.html for the schedule. Summer schedule is normally every hour instead of every 2 hours.

Non divers will probably want to stay in Vancouver, however there is lots to do in Nanaimo - sea kyaking on the gulf islands - a 5 min ferry ride from Nanaimo. Lots of hiking possibilities in Nanaimo in the summer. They might want to go to Whistler for the day as well. A bit of a drive but then you are in an outdoor playground. Hiking, mountian biking, wind surfing roller blades etc. etc. etc. Also some serious shopping opportunities. You can really get a credit card smoking in Whistler.

However Vancouver is a big city on the edge of the ocean at the foot of mountians - lots to do outside. I would do the Nanaimo trip over local Vancouver dives however.

Getting from the cruse dock to the Nanaimo ferry is non trivial. You may want to fly harbour to harbour. Depends on budget, but is a good option. The flight takes off a couple of hundered yards from the cruse ship terminal and arrives fairly close to the dive shop - a 5 minute cab ride.

Don't know re summer months charter. Ocean Quest will do a dive with 2 in the boat. (Just did that dive a week ago)

 

[large_diver]

I re-posted over in the Western Canada section of the board.....

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=1450816#post1450816