• Parking:
  • Small public parking lot here, can fit about 10 cars
• Launching
  • muddy beach
• Difficulty – intermediate, not beginner friendly. fairly exposed to the mixture of winds and waves from Howe Sound and the Straight if you ventured much beyond the harbour
• Boat traffic – fairly busy boat traffic out in the boating channels, and the Eagle Harbour Yacht Club was holding sailing practices on this fine Sunday
• View – beautiful open views of the ocean, backdrop of Vancouver Island to the west and gorgeous snow-capped Sea to Sky mountain peaks to the north. Most coastline in the area is basically fully developed until you reach Lighthouse Park in the south or go north past Horseshoe Bay.
• Facilities – public washroom closed until May
• Overall score – 6/10

West Vancouver coastline deserves respect. The winds and waves from Howe Sound get mixed up with those from the Straight of Georgia, which can get confusing and unpredictable quickly. My previous attempt at paddling here ended with me in the water and learning some valuable lessons. When Howard made plans for a short day-paddle around Eagle Harbour, I was immediately excited about the opportunity to tackle this challenging body of water again with a group of strong paddling friends for support.

Parking was easy on this spring Sunday morning. A small public parking lot could hold about 10 cars and was basically empty. A quick stroll of about 100m took us to the muddy beaches to launch our boards.

Unfortunately the public change room/washroom was closed for the season and won’t be reopened until mid May.

The plan was simple. We launched from the public beaches at Eagle Harbour, I dropped a crab trap outside the harbour, and we went south to check out a sea cave (approximate location: 49°20’17.9″N 123°16’08.8″W).

At the highest tide, we could paddle further into this cave for some cool photos. But with constant ocean swell and rugged rocks in a narrow cave, there’s a chance to damage our boards.

Then we crossed the 2.5km open ocean crossing to visit Passage Island.

We originally wanted to circumnavigate the island, but the winds and waves picked up significantly. Reaching the island after a tiring, nearly hour-long battle into head winds, we were all just happy to take a break in the lee of the island.

Thankfully the way back was much easier, with a good tail wind and waves working together to push us along. We checked out some small rocky islets covered with sunbathing seals, from a respectful distance of course.

We went through the Eagle Harbour to get back to the beach, but it was quite congested. A group of young sailors and their protective coaches were moving out. We paid so much attention to the kids jumping around the little tub-sized sailboats trying to sail into headwind, that we missed a bigger sailboat creeping along waiting to get out.

Sadly, my crab trap was totally empty. Howard theorized that this was because my metal cage trap sat at an angle inconvenient for the crabs on the rocky ocean floor. I also switched to a couple of orange bait jars that have much smaller slits than the wide open bait nets I use before.

All in all, it was just the right amount of exercise, adventure, and gear warm up for another great paddling season ahead.