False Creek Vancouver BC anchorage, view of Telus Science Museum from the dinghy dock.

Our friends, Chris(topher) and Chris(tina) of s/v Scintilla declared Vancouver BC as one of their favorite urban anchorages, along with Sydney Harbour, where we both spent our most epic New Year’s eve. We agree!

False Creek Vancouver BC anchorage, Roger’s Stadium view from our boat.

Unlike our world-beater Sydney bridge anchorage, False Creek Vancouver is surprisingly calm and relatively quiet for a big city anchorage (though a 20+ knot NW blow had us concerned). 

Aquabus and False Creek Ferries, the two water taxi companies, zipped by our anchorage regularly as we were just a few hundred yards from one of their their stops. Vancouver BC, Canada.

Though quiet, there’s nearly always something going on…

These intriguing water bikes puttered past us.

Water taxis, kayakers, dragon boaters, water bikes, tour boats, events at the Telus Science Museum, a partier or two, the guy who got his 60-foot Chris Craft stuck against the dinghy dock with a dead battery because he ran it dry…

I was concerned about the potential fate of this sailboat anchored in False Creek given how close it came to the mollusk-encrusted pilings. Vancouver BC.

We did find it was other anchoring boats (and our own) we had to keep an eye on. The area is notorious for dragging. Yes, friends Meaghan and Chris of Tangatatu, formerly of Vancouver BC themselves, called that one right. Even without dragging, with our boat anchor on chain and our neighbors on rope, well, let’s just say we had to re-anchor four times. And we were in the low season, in an area where less boats are able to anchor!

Our boat in the False Creek anchorage, Vancouver BC.

False Creek was a great base for getting around. Lots of good options in easy walking distance, a block away from a variety of mass transit, and truly phenomenal bike paths. On a good tip from a local, we picked up a free bike map on our first day here from a bike shop. It doubled as a general city map for us. Watch for some catch-up posts on what we did.

Sailboats off our aft, Cambie Bridge behind them, Vancouver BC.

In our week here, we enjoyed several nights with spectacular sunsets. There was some rain and cloudy nights, and eve temps dropped down into the 40s, but hey, it’s fall.

Rogers Stadium, the view from our boat, Vancouver BC.

Rogers Stadium changed its lighting scheme nearly every night. In addition to the red-white-and-blue, we saw blue, turquoise, orange, pink-and-blue, orange-and-yellow. Telus Science Museum changed its colors. too.

Looks a bit like fireworks, but it’s just Telus Science Museum at night from our boat.

We never ponied up for the Telus Science Museum as it was spendy and highly kid-oriented, though walking past their grounds was fun… and we definitely appreciated the use of their wifi. It wasn’t all that steady, but unlike AT&T there wasn’t illogical data access limit issues (and Verizon doesn’t work at all in Canada). Appropriately, we managed to download all of season 4 of “Black Sails.” Yeah, we know we’re behind the times but haven’t had cable tv for, well, decades. That’s one way we can afford cruising! The other? Like Sydney Harbour, Australia, anchoring here was free. We used only half of our 14-day permit. We’d be hard pressed to find any hotel room we could afford with a view better than the one from our boat.
Location Location

Our anchor location in False Creek, Vancouver BC.

Much as we loved the raw beauty of Princess Luisa Inlet, going urban and exploring this clean, vibrant, beautiful city was a truly a treat. Our False Creek anchorage (at least the first time we dropped anchor!) N49 16.401 W123 06.365.

Tomorrow morning (by time time you read this) we’ll be back in the States. We’re targeting Sucia in the San Juans, a good place to hunker for the next set of strong winds as we work our way back home.  We’ve traveled nearly 600 nautical miles so far on this trip, at an average speed of about 7 knots.