Newcastle Island lies just off Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and, together with Protection Island, forms a natural barrier for the Nanaimo harbour and marinas. For our first "summer" cruise we decided to visit Newcastle Island since the weather in Vancouver was just spectacular. We left Horseshoe Bay early on Saturday morning and cruised over to Nanaimo - a leisurely 1.5 hour cruise and about 37 miles from marina to anchorage. We anchored in Mark Bay, with a beautiful view of Nanaimo. Once securely at anchor we headed off to the Dingy Dock Pub for lunch (we can highly recommend this - excellent food at very reasonable prices) which turned out to last for a couple of hours. The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing about and exploring the island. Philip and I took the dingy over to Nanaimo for gas and snacks and then did a tour around the island, returning to the bay through the Gap at high tide. Late afternoon we returned to the Dingy Dock for sundowners and a snack.
We went to bed early but woke up around 1:30 am to a howling storm which pushed the boat around quite a bit in a 2-3ft chop in the bay. Philip and Megan was already up when I got to the salon and Anneline joined us after a little bit. We watched as several vessels left the bay (presumably for shelter in Nanaimo Harbour) and after making sure we were not dragging, got back in bed.
Sunday we moved Kuredu to the public dock on the island and tied up. Anneline and Megan went exploring, Philip took the dingy for a cruise and I pottered about on the boat. We left for home early afternoon and arrived back at 4:30pm, washed the salt of Kuredu and BBQ'd some burgers for dinner.
What an amazing weekend. Newcastle will see a lot more of us this summer.
