May 01, 2010 | our 2 passengers flew from Vancouver’s inner harbour on SaltSpringAir.com arriving in Ganges on Salt Spring Island at 9:35 am. This 40 minute dock-to-dock flight offers spectacular aerial views of the southern Gulf and San Juan Islands.

Giving them some time to enjoy the Saturday market we met them dockside at 10:45 am and set sail for Active Pass. This was primarily a sight-seeing tour and we did not stop at any of the islands. We made close sail-pasts along passed Mayne and Saturna islands before heading over to the Penders.

There is a lovely narrow canal between North and South Pender Islands connecting Bedwell Harbour with Port Browning. (Artifacts found during an archeological dig in the 70’s show native use of this area some 5,000 years ago.)

Leaving Bedwell Harbour we towards Princess Margaret Marine Provincial Park on Portland Island where we enjoyed a picnic lunch on a deserted beach. Upon approaching the beach we saw a Bald Eagle standing in the shallows by the Brackman Island Ecological Reserve; another great picture!

As we arrived at the quaint seaside village of Cowichan Bay our guests took some great photographs including a couple of really good ones of a great blue heron.

We did not have time this trip to stop in Chemainus just across from the north-west coast of Salt Spring Island. Heading south we came upon a seal haul out and then back to Ganges by 3:45 pm. Our guests caught the 4:10 return flight to Vancouver.

A complete set of Dino Dina’s (our passenger) pictures he so generously shared are published at www.Facebook.com/MarineEcoTours