Going North
There's a whole world waiting past Cape Caution
Some places do not open easily
They ask for skill, patience, and judgment. They ask you to earn your way in.
The Inside Passage and the Great Bear Rainforest are not weekend trips. They are long-term plans. The kind you work quietly towards, season after season, as your experience deepens and your decision making sharpens.
FEATURED MAP
Map of the Great Bear Rainforest
An ocean-focused wall map of British Columbia’s North Coast and Hecate Strait, from the narrow threads of the Inside Passage to the exposed crossings that demand respect.
This map holds channels, fjords, shallows, and working harbours across one of the most consequential regions of the BC coast. It is for sailors and cruisers who understand that preparation and intuition are not opposites, but partners.
Printed on archival-quality art paper. Designed to be daily reminder of the north waters.
Going north changes how you think about water
Distances stretch. Forecasts matter more. Mistakes linger longer. You begin to pay attention in a different way to timing, to tides and shallows, to the weight of decisions that cannot be undone halfway through a crossing.
Whether your goal is sailing north through the Inside Passage, cruising the outer coast, or one day crossing Hecate Strait, these plans tend to live quietly in the back of your mind for years. You return to them as your skills catch up to your curiosity, and as your confidence becomes grounded in experience rather than hope. This page is for those plans.
Why these maps exist
I made these maps because I needed them. Not as decoration, but as a way to hold everything in one place.
Haida Gwaii was a long-standing goal for me. Crossing Hecate Strait felt like a milestone, and also like a beginning rather than an ending. The east side is shallow. The west side is exposed and deep. Forecasts shift. Help is far away.
If you do the work, it is worth it. The beaches are immense. The narrows are long and committing. Wildlife is constant, and the scale of the place resets your sense of distance. These maps are an attempt to honour that reality.
What going north really means
Going north is not about ticking places off a list. It is about meeting the coast on its own terms.
'Thin' charts. Remote anchorages. Weather that does not care how prepared you feel. On BC's north coast, you learn to wait. You learn to turn back. You learn that good judgment matters more than determination, and that confidence comes from repetition rather than bravado.
The reward is not ease, it is depth. Long passages, narrow channels, working harbours, and the quiet intensity of a coast that still operates on its own schedule. For those who put in the time, the Great Bear Rainforest and the Inside Passage offer a kind of immersion that changes how you see every coastline that comes after.
Going North
Hard miles that are well worth it