All of Jedediah Island is a Provincial Marine Park. It us the largest of a chain of islands in the Georgia Strait between Texada Island and Lasqueti Island. It can only be accessed by boat. The shortest kayak access is from Lasqueti Island (a passenger only ferry from Vancouver Island, but kayaks can be carried onto the ferry). A longer kayak route is from the Sunshine Coast. There are some backcountry marine campsites which require booking through BC Parks.
We wanted to kayak across Georgia Strait from Halfmoon Bay, but it was too windy and rough for an open water crossing of Malaspina Strait (16 km to the south end of Texada Island), so we ended up booking a water taxi out of Pender Harbor. Even in the big water taxi, the seas were rough as we crossed the open strait. We pulled close to a rock shelf at the entrance to Cabin Bay at high tide to unload our boats and gear. We set up camp in a protected area in the bay.
When we woke up the next morning, the tide was out and there were many raccoons on the muddy tidal flats digging for breakfast. On our first day we paddled the Sabine Channel islands, stopping for lunch on Jervis Island. We hiked trails on the island later in the day. On the next day we paddled over to Lasqueti Island, landing at the Provincial Park at Squitty Day. Later in the day we hiked to a loop route on the island, going out to other marine campsites and rocky points, then hiking up to the highest points on the island, the Gibraltar Peaks.
On our final day, we were not sure if the conditions were reasonable for a paddle back to the Sunshine Coast. We had the option to lay over at a marine site on the south end of Texada Island. After some discussion, we decided to try the open water crossing, but we would turn back if it was too dangerous. It was a difficult and not very safe crossing, but we got across without capsizing, paddling hard across the open strait for 10 km to the lee of islands near Buccaneer Bay. we looked at the marine campground there, but the tide was out and we wouldn’t be able to land our boats near the campsite for a few hours so we decided to continue up the Coast, past Smugglers Cove and up the coast line to Pender Harbor, another 8.3 miles (13.3 km). The entire paddle from Jedediah to Pender Harbor was about 20 miles (32 km), some of it difficult conditions.
Camping and exploring Jedediah Island and the Sabine Channel Islands was outstanding. Paddling across the open water channel was not something we would do again. After that trip we continued to paddle to other Gulf Islands, the Broken Islands, and across new channels, tucking into the lee of islands and keeping the channel crossings shorter.
Some photos from the Jedediah trip are shared here as a Google Photos album (link), displayed as a slideshow.
