Vancouver is a wonderful and cosmopolitan city, and False Creek, the reformed industrial waterway bordering the south edge of the downtown core, is an interesting anchorage right at its heart. Prominent location of both Expo ’86 and important parts of the more recent 2010 Olympics, False Creek has a checkered history that is slowly being sublimated into the glitz and opulence of big city living. It’s an amazingly central location for the visiting sailor to experience views and a taste of the lifestyle that comes with ownership of the million dollar condos springing up in the Yaletown neighborhood on the northern shore. It is also surprisingly affordable and packed with places to go and things to see.
Anchorages
False Creek is a heavily regulated body of water. It is a no-discharge zone for sewage (a fact you may find hard to believe after watching the rings appear on your hull near the waterline after a couple days there). A speed limit of 10km/h (5 knots) exists throughout. Anchoring is limited to two weeks in every four between April 1st and September 30th, and 21 days in every 40 days between October 1st and March 31st, and requires registration and display of a permit. You can register at the Boating Welcome Center beneath the north span of the Granville Bridge (second bridge in; the BWC is clearly marked in houseboat at the docks of the False Creek Yacht Club), or at the dinghy dock at Stamps Landing below Monk McQueen’s restaurant. The staff at the BWC are extremely helpful with any question or request you might have and I highly recommend them as a resource if there is anything you are uncertain about.
A well-marked navigation channel extends the length of the Creek through the center, in which anchorage is not permitted. You can get a free map at the BWC showing both the channel and surrounding amenities. The map suggests East Basin, furthest inland, and Charleson Bay, along the south edge about halfway in, as the recommended anchorages. The East Basin looks appealing, but as it is past the Cambie Bridge, with a least height of 13m, it’s generally unavailable, or at least inconvenient, to most cruising sailboats. Charleson Bay looks nice and appears to have good holding, but is perpetually crowded. It’s also some distance from most services and dinghy docks.
We had better luck just south of the channel in between Stamps Landing and the Cambie Bridge, a popular spot very near to two dinghy docks and the closest grocery store. This area can also fill up, however. Our next most favored location is just off David Lam Park, opposite Charleson Bay. There is room for only a few boats in the narrow slot between the channel and a “No Anchor” zone where the Vancouver Fire Department pump intakes are located, but this is very close to the Yaletown Dinghy dock and convenient for landing. Holding was not as good here as we found elsewhere; it took a couple tries to set the hook and I was never as comfortable with it as I would have preferred, although ultimately we had no problems in winds as high as twenty knots.
In both these locations, you are right on the route of the fleet of small harbour ferries that serve those nearby dinghy dock locations, so you’ll get a lot of traffic going past. There are also dragon boat and kayak teams practicing along the shores which will grunt and shout their way past you close abeam morning and night. This is charming for the first few days, until you’re trying to take a nap. But both the slapping wakes and the splashing paddles, with the traffic noise and the sirens, are part of the overall character of the place.
Summer weekend evenings are also rife with intoxicated powerboaters and passing party barges. Most people don’t bother with anchor lights at night, considering the city lights and the generally well-known anchorage areas; we did, if only for insurance purposes.
Landings
There are five public dinghy docks on False Creek (and a psuedo-public dock at Quayside Marina), all of which are marked on a convenient downloadable map from the Vancouver city Blueways site. They are all well-positioned for access to various attractions and neighborhoods around False Creek. Each also doubles as a stop for the ubiquitous harbour ferries, so the water-facing side of the dock must be left clear. The periphery can become pretty crowded but there is almost always some way to tie up one more. Depending on the value of your dinghy and your degree of paranoia, you might want to bring along a lock for it and/or your motor. The docks struck us as universally pretty safe in the daytime, but some (particularly Spyglass Place) are a little isolated after dark and have an uncomfortable degree of proximity to bars disgorging intoxicated folks in high spirits whose judgement may fail them when presented with an opportunity for joy-rides.
We didn’t have any trouble leaving oars or other basic gear in our dinghy while leaving it tied up at any hour, but then we have pretty crappy stuff.
Surrounding Neighborhoods
From almost anywhere, a morning or evening in the cockpit provides a priceless window on big city life as the well-used trails and parks lining the Creek are used by residents going about their daily lives.
We really enjoyed going ashore on the north side in Yaletown, an upscale neighborhood with a beautiful public space in David Lam Park, where we could sit and drink coffee and admire Insegrevious at anchor just off-shore. Apart from that, it was a little too swanky for us, but there is a very convenient SkyTrain stop which we used as a launch-pad for exploring the rest of the city. Either by train or on foot you can head north to historic Gastown or the rest of the downtown urban core, both of which will feel familiar to most city folk.
To the south is a great walking/picnicking spot, Charleson Park, and of course the incomparable Granville Island with its curious mix of industry, education, tourist shops, and marine services.
Science World is the big dome at the east end of False Creek; I haven’t been there in years and it was in the middle of renovations when we were there so I can’t comment, but I have fond memories from the past. Beyond Science World is Chinatown.
The other direction, west, leads to Kitsilano, a lovely little neighborhood that we didn’t really explore. Likewise, we failed to hit either the Vancouver Maritime Museum or the HR MacMillan Space Centre, both right at the entrance to False Creek and also on our list of things to see… but we just ran out of time.
Provisions and Services
The False Creek Esso location near the Granville Bridge has been closed (despite still being listed in some notable Pacific Northwest nautical publications; we’re looking at you, Northwest Yachting Magazine), and with it, the last fuel dock convenient to the Creek. You’ll have to make the voyage up through First Narrows to Coal Harbour if you need to tank up, or as one enterprising gentleman at a nearby marina did, hike back and forth from the nearest petrol station (about eight blocks up Burrard Street from the BWC) with a five gallon can. Better yet, buy a sailboat, and sail it. We took on fuel in Nanaimo. Two months ago.
Update: Reader Tricia Coldren points out that a new fuel operation has opened up just this month, at the site of the old Esso barge just west of the Burrard Bridge on the south shore of the inlet, False Creek Fuels. That’s great news and a boon to visitors in general and False Creek in particular. And we apologize to Northwest Yachting Magazine, who were only wrong for one year and saved themselves the trouble of editing their list twice!
Internet access is pretty much unavailable throughout the Creek, a significant defect if you are living aboard and working. However, many coffee shops in the city provide free wireless, as does the Vancouver Public Library (Central Branch located just up the hill at South Georgia and Homer streets) with a guest access card.
The closest grocery is the Budget Foods in Leg In Boot Square, just west along the seawall from Stamps Landing. The prices are reasonable but the selection limited. Once you master the Vancouver transit system, there is a Real Canadian Superstore at 350 SE Marine Drive, accessible by a short hop on the SkyTrain Canada Line. That was the cheapest grocery we found; there are a number of small mom and pop produce shops downtown with better prices than any general grocer, but you have to leg it around to find the best deals. There are also an IGA and a Safeway in the downtown core, both along Robson street, but they are generally more expensive. A Save-On Foods south on Cambie street looked like another promising option, but we didn’t have a chance to check it out.
Things to See
Well, what’s not to see? You can have your pick of tourist brochures at the Vancouver Tourist Information Centre near Canada Place, so I’ll skip all the usual highlights and stick with the free stuff.
Granville Island is a close analog to Pike Place in Seattle, only with more of a mixed use flavor to it. It’s absolutely worth walking around and enjoying. The “farmer’s market,” however, may be quaint but it’s absolutely not the place to get the best deals on food. Buy something there to say you did and do your real shopping elsewhere.
Like in Chinatown, for instance. If dried chicken feet are your thing. If you’re used to the International District in Seattle, Vancouver’s Chinatown will amaze you. The third largest in North America, it is big, and packed with interesting and exotic sights, sounds, and smells. You could spend a day there, easily.
Stanley Park is worth another day or two. At one thousand acres, it is the largest urban park in Canada, and perhaps one of the largest in the world. You can walk from the up-scale shops of Robson Street into native forest in a few blocks. If nature itself isn’t your thing, there are also other diversions such as a miniature railway and an aquarium scattered along the 16 miles of paths through the park.
Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver is surprisingly accessible as the northern terminus of the public Seabus service, and is a small-scale version of the Granville Island shops and markets that is often less crowded and more local.
And while you’re in North Vancouver, there are the public parks of the North Slope. Capilano Park, home of the Capilano Suspension Bridge, may be the best known of these, but the tour of the bridge costs rather a lot. Less well-known, but equally interesting, is the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge in Lynn Canyon Park. It’s free, less crowded, and easy to get to on the number 228 or 229 bus from Lonsdale Quay.
Two weeks is really too little time to take in everything that Vancouver has to offer. We used up our anchorage permit time and took an additional week in a marina and still didn’t make it to everything on our list. Clearly, future visits are in order. Whether you have a lot of time or a little, Vancouver is an excellent stop for sailors on a budget.