Pacific North West Advice

[Eder]

Man...talking & reading about my old stomping grounds make me want to bring the boat home from Tahiti. Maybe this June.

[Thank you dad]

how is the cell phone service? I would assume the further away you get from the cities the worse the coverage is.


Any advice to canadian and service in the san juans.


thanks

[Kelkara]

Originally Posted by Thank you dad

how is the cell phone service? I would assume the further away you get from the cities the worse the coverage is.

Any advice to canadian and service in the san juans.

thanks

This is my experience with Telus:

Howe Sound = Excellent
Gulf Islands/Strait of Georgia = mostly good.
Desolation Sound/Discovery Islands = patchy.
Johnstone Strait/Queen Charlotte Strait = weak, but often there.
Broughtons = mostly none.
Mid-coast/North Coast = only when close to Bella Bella or Prince Rupert.
SE Alaska = only in the vicinity of towns.

I don't use my phone much on the boat so this is not a rigorous analysis. If people really want to get in touch, the InReach is reliable.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Kelkara

This is my experience with Telus:

Howe Sound = Excellent
Gulf Islands/Strait of Georgia = mostly good.
Desolation Sound/Discovery Islands = patchy.
Johnstone Strait/Queen Charlotte Strait = weak, but often there.
Broughtons = mostly none.
Mid-coast/North Coast = only when close to Bella Bella or Prince Rupert.
SE Alaska = only in the vicinity of towns.

I don't use my phone much on the boat so this is not a rigorous analysis. If people really want to get in touch, the InReach is reliable.

The Broughtons is better now. This spring it was not so good in the anchorages, but as you are moving cell service will appear long enough to check your mail or post an Instagram :-)

[Cpt Mark]

Originally Posted by Thank you dad

how is the cell phone service? I would assume the further away you get from the cities the worse the coverage is.


Any advice to canadian and service in the san juans.


thanks

Cell phone coverage near towns/cities is ok. Bigger the population the better coverage as you'd expect. Small towns and a lot of the cruising area in between is zero coverage.

[basssears]

We use Verizon US service in San Juans and Gulf Islands, pay an extra $5/day that we're using Canadian towers and everything else is included (i.e. our standard texting, voice and data plan is included, just $5 extra per day used in Canada).


Keep in mind with this plan we have to be careful even in the San Juans as sometimes the easiest to hit towers will be Canadian and we'll end up paying the $5 without ever leaving the country.


In the San Juans and Gulfs we don't always have a signal right where the boat is but it always seems like a five minute walk will get you what you need, although I have had a few experiences where I had data and text but couldn't make voice calls connect.

[redhead]

Originally Posted by Thank you dad

how is the cell phone service? I would assume the further away you get from the cities the worse the coverage is.


Any advice to canadian and service in the san juans.


thanks

We too are on the Verizon International plan and had no problems until we were north of Desolation Sound. Then we would take the dinghy out into the middle of this vast stretch of lonely water where there was a notch in the surrounding hills and we got a signal from the last tower we saw.

Strange making calls floating in 400 feet of water with only eagles and pine trees to witness....very strange.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by Thank you dad

how is the cell phone service? I would assume the further away you get from the cities the worse the coverage is.

Any advice to canadian and service in the san juans.

thanks

TYD- I can offer cell service perspective from living in Alaska [PN-NW?] and routinely visiting BC.

So far in our first-hand experience, AT&T has the best coverage in Alaska, and the best Canadian [and Mexico...] roaming plan for those of us based in Alaska [i.e., We don't get T-Mobile, usable Verizon, usable Google Fi, etc., therefore we have both AT&T and GCI cell plans.]

Expect to get 4G [and sometimes usable LTE] service only near large cities; everywhere else is 3G [Google Fi is 2G currently in Alaska...] On 3G we average a measured 2-3 Mbps downloads and 2 Mbps upload speeds. [We can often stream movies without issues at more anchorages than we would expect– if there is a weak 3G signal we can boost...]

Many of the cruisers we meet who come to Alaska with Verizon plans are very disappointed with the data speeds they experience— if they can get any through-put at all. [Not every subscriber, but most we speak with— as of summer 2018.]

You are right about cell connectivity being best near [human] population centers. We have found a simple cell booster [with external antenna on mast spreaders] very useful for fringe signal areas.

Because we are constantly living by cell data [we cruise full time, and accessible/usable internet access via open WiFi is pretty much extinct...] I maintain a detailed page of our current cell equipment, services, and experiences with links to related resources if you are interested...

Cheers! Bill

[01kiwijohn]

We use Verizon's us & Canada plan and, you're right, the coverage is erratic. I did spend over an hour on the phone with their help desk, while in Wrangle. They tried, but failed to get the coverage there. Evidently, the local carrier they contracted with wasn't doing the job.
Be careful near the San Juans. I noticed we were getting hooked into Canadian Rogers service, while in US Waters. Call Verizon, they'll credit you.
Oherwise, some spotty service as others indicated.
In Misty Fiord, nothing doing, no vhf either.

[pdickie]

If you were only to get one Cruising guide series, I’d highly recommend the Exploring series by Don and Reanne Douglass. They contain, by a considerable margin, the most navigational information for the BC and Southern Alaska coasts. They are like a coast pilot for small vessels - not glossy, but crammed with useful information.

A user friendly second choice, with lots of charming diagrams, photos, and descriptions of shore facilities, is the Dreamspeaker series by Anne and Laurence Yeadon-Jones (but they don’t go as far north and don’t contain as much navigational info in the areas they do cover).

I’d also highly recommend Best Anchorages of the Inside Passage by Anne Vipond and William Kelly. While it only covers selected anchorages between Vancouver Island and the mainland, it contains the best coverage of the various passes and how to transit them.

Enjoy your cruise - it’s boating heaven!

[ninethlife]

Cross the Queen Charlottes only on a flood tide...in either direction.

[argonauta1]

Bring both engines and the hard bottom. Best places to re provision: Sidney least useful as no dinghy dock. Good customs and fuel dock but far from provisioning amenities. Note Sidney Port Marina no fuel dock. Nanaimo: good sheltered anchorage; dinghy friendly marina and fuel dock easy on easy off. Thrifty Super Market down the road. Comox, great visitor slips easy on easy off, anchorage poor. COSTCO by cab; super market walk distance. All prices normal at these three places. Best bets: Nanaimo and Comox.

Once you get up into Desolation Sound area, Squirrel Cove is about the best: wifi, groceries, propane. Beyond ??

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by argonauta1

Bring both engines and the hard bottom. Best places to re provision: Sidney least useful as no dinghy dock. Good customs and fuel dock but far from provisioning amenities. Note Sidney Port Marina no fuel dock. Nanaimo: good sheltered anchorage; dinghy friendly marina and fuel dock easy on easy off. Thrifty Super Market down the road. Comox, great visitor slips easy on easy off, anchorage poor. COSTCO by cab; super market walk distance. All prices normal at these three places. Best bets: Nanaimo and Comox.

Madeira Bay in Pender Harbour is great. Groceries and booze within walking distance and you are encouraged to take your grocery carts right down to the gov't dock. And they have a great meat department...

[scareygary]

There are two books I always take along...."Anchorages and Marine Parks" and "Docks and Destinations", I think, by Peter Vassalopoulus, or something like that. The third book with great info on currents and tides (that can be formidable in spots) is "Ports and Passes, printed yearly.... BTW: probably goes without saying, but a Danforth is nearly useless up there except maybe as a lunch hook. Eel grass and rocks make a plow type (I use a Bruce and like it) anchor a real necessity, imho....

[hallejj]

Let me echo the comment that you need the hard bottom dinghy. The terrain will make short work of anything else. Distances to shore are, as you observed, usually fairly short but there are a number of places where you can't get ashore at the nearest point (because of the terrain or because the land is privately owned) and there may be places you want to go that aren't close to where your boat is (e.g. if you are anchored in Garrison Bay and want to go into Roche Harbor.) We just exchanged our 6hp outboard for a 15hp so we have a bit more practical range. Bring a good windbreaker and some sweaters etc. The ocean temp is in the low 50s, which makes it the world's largest air conditioner. If there is a wind, it can easily be 20 degrees cooler than the reported temp for the nearest port and it can get chilly at night. Make sure you have your MOB drill down. If you get in the water you will REALLY want to get back out fast.