The day after the boat trip we had planned a day cycling around Savary Island.

The Island is surrounded by beautiful white sand beaches and has the warmest ocean temperature in BC:

“The tides moving from the north and south of Georgia Strait meet just north of Savary. The southern tide is warm and the waters move less. This results in generally warmer seas. This water flows over Savary’s sunbaked sandy shelf producing the warmest water north of Mexico. The water on the north side of Savary is protected from the open Strait and usually is a little warmer. Direct sun on the south side compensates.”

The water is indeed warmer than most ocean waters in BC, but once you get past the almost bathwater-temperature of the shallow water at the edge, it has two distinct currents - one warm and one really cold - so I was “ahhh!-ing” and “eek!-ing” simultaneously as, for example, my left leg was warm and my torso was freezing!

Brrr! I couldn’t stay submerged for more than a few minutes at a time, but SO was made of sturdier stuff.

We explored most of the beaches on the island before we came across our favourite one on the north east tip of the island, where we hung out for most of the afternoon.

The Island has no vehicle-ferry access, no electricity and no public washrooms, so, apart from in the height of summer when visitors flock to it for a bit of sun and sand, it is very unpopulated, very rural and very laid back. In a word it is lovely, and we were extremely tempted to just buy one of the plots of land for sale - oceanfront lots were pretty cheap! Common sense prevailed, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it.

We’re not too fit at the moment and I’m not the best cyclist, so we were very hot and very tired by the time we neared the wharf, and were delighted to discover the only pub on the island. Beers were drunk and smiles exchanged before we phoned Ian to come and pick us up in his boat. We hadn’t had quite enough of the island and so we decided that instead of going for a hike along the Sunshine Coast Trail the next day, we would go back and do exactly the same thing, only with less cycling, more relaxing on the beach and more beer!