Barkley Sound British Columbia

Effingham Island at a Glance

Thursday, September 05, 2013TheCambrians

Effingham Island needs more than a day to be fully explored, so we decided to stay four. It’s getting late in the season and most of the other boats have already made their way back up the Strait of Juan de Fuca, including  Linger Longer and Sarita. We’re anxious to get back on the inside as well but are reluctant to leave Barkley Sound before visiting a few anchorages while the weather continues to be settled – the trick is to not overstay our welcome. 

Effingham Island’s protected by outer rocks and reefs but, over the course of thousands of years, storms have carved interesting formations along its coast – sea caves, natural arches and pinnacles, to name a few.  It’s been worth the effort to battle the current and swell for an up-close and personal look by kayak (the dinghy just doesn’t cut it). 




On the east side of the island, there’s a large midden beach, the former site of a First Nations’ village. A trail from the anchorage will take you there through lush rain forest, but we chose the more scenic route and travelled by dinghy before landing on the beach and walking around. There’s a large sea cave to the southeast of the midden, but we weren’t able to reach it by foot and had to navigate our way through rocky kelp beds to get there.



As impressive as the coastline of Effingham Island is, I think it’s fair to say that our favourite thing about the anchorage is the sunsets: We spent night after night on deck watching shades of red, orange and pink slowly fill the sky – it really doesn’t get much better than that. 


You Might Also Like

0 comments