Spirit Charters
The waters surrounding the Sunshine Coast provide many leisure and recreational opportunities. The endless coastline and clean clear waters as well as the abundant variety of wildlife make this area perfect for boating. Spirit Charters offers private, personalized boat cruises to meet your needs 12 months of the year. Our charters allow you to view some of the most spectacular scenery in British Columbia.
Experience the Sunshine Coast from the water with its picturesque inlets, fjords, and secluded beaches. View magnificent marine wild life, eagles, seals, herons and countless other creatures. You may want to cruise the shoreline and peek at the large variety of waterfront homes in the Halfmoon Bay area ranging from secluded cottages to spectacular grand estates.In the summer you may want to sit on the command bridge or in the cockpit and enjoy the sunshine, or jump in for a refreshing swim. Perhaps you'd like to stop at a secluded beach were you can stretch your legs, explore, and go beach combing for treasures. In winter, you can relax and view the sights from the toasty warm cabin. Or you may want to enjoy the winter scenery from outside while sipping a hot beverage.
You may choose to be picked up from the Secret Cove Hideaway dock at the Jolly Roger Marina, or at any of the many docks in the area. You will be welcomed aboard the Orca Spirit, a 26 foot Tollycraft. This comfortable boat offers a command bridge that allows for even better views of our beautiful coastline. It comes equipped with a galley, a head, a large cockpit and a furnace, for those cooler days. The Orca Spirit is seaworthy, stable, strong, and fast enough to get you there quickly if that is your pleasure. Designed and built in the northwest especially for these waters, you’ll find this little yacht offers a pleasant comfortable ride. 
Under the capable hands of Cap’n Biz, the Orca Spirit is one of the best ways to cruise the waters of the Sunshine Coast.
There is an abundance of wildlife in the area.
Residents of the Sunshine Coast Coast are very familiar with the Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) and the Red Rock Crab (Cancer productus. The Dungeness is a highly prized sport and commercial shellfish species.
A male crab can grow to a maximum width of 23 cm and weigh about 2 kg. The Dungeness crab is distinguished from the Red Rock crab by the slender, light-coloured fingers of its claws. On the Orca Spirit we catch both Red Rock and Dungeness crab in our trap. In order to keep the stocks growing we choose not to keep females. Some predators during the crab's life on the bottom are halibut, dogfish, sculpins and octopus. Cannibalism is known, particularly on young crabs during the first weeks after completing larval life. Coho salmon at times may feed heavily on crab larvae.
Throughout its life, a crab's growth is restricted by having the skeleton on the outside. Consequently, it does not grow gradually like a fish, but increases in size by periodic moulting. After shedding the old shell, swallowed water causes the crab to swell to the new larger size. Shell hardening takes one to three months.
Once the crab settles to the bottom, it moults 10 -11 times and then attains maturity. This takes two or three years. The male reaches legal size (165 mm, or 5.4 inches in shell width) after 12 or 13 moults, about four years. Because they are slower growing after the third year, few females ever reach legal size.
The Dungeness crab is 20-25% meat by weight, yielding both leg and body meat. The white meat is highly prized for crab cocktails, pastas, pastries, sauces and salads, or can be simply served right out of the shell.
You may want to do a gentle relaxing cruise through the little coves of Halfmoon Bay. The wildlife is incredible around Halfmoon Bay especially from the water, it gives you a whole new perspective.
Eagles swoop and dive as they hunt for fish.
The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), is a magnificent bird of prey. It is the only eagle unique to North America. The scientific name indicates a sea (halo) eagle (aeetos) with a white (leukos) head. Bald eagles have a long, downward-curving yellow bill, and large, keen eyes. These strong fliers have white feathers on their head, tail, and wing tips, the body has brown feathers. Their feet sport knife-like talons. Eagles have about 7,000 feathers. Adult eagles have a 7 ft (2.3 m) wingspan and can reach 3 ft (1 m) in height. They weigh between 9 and 14 pounds. Bald eagles are found over most of North America, from Alaska and Canada to northern Mexico. About half of the world's 70,000 bald eagles live in Alaska. Combined with British Columbia's population of about 20,000, the northwest coast of North America is by far their greatest stronghold for bald eagles. They flourish here in part because of the salmon. Dead or dying fish are an important food source for all bald eagles.
When they mate, they mate for life.A clutch of one to three eggs is laid sometime from December to March. The eggs take about a month to a month and a half to hatch (Both males and females help incubate the eggs in the nest. They will feed the hatchlings until they learn to fly (fledge). Eagles can live up to 20 to 30 years in the wild. Like most animals, they usually live even longer in captivity. Summer time is seal time.
Seals and sea lions, are a familiar sight in coastal waters off British Columbia. They are pinnipeds, carnivorous aquatic mammals that use flippers for movement on land and in the water. Their streamlined bodies, specialized flippers and insulating layer of blubber allow seals to travel and forage at sea with ease. Unlike dolphins, porpoises and whales, pinnipeds require land to bear and suckle their young and to rest. This is a common scene around the waters of the Sunshine Coast and can be viewed easily from a kayak or your cruise on the Orca Spirit.
Seals and sea lions in B.C. have evoked a great deal of interest over the years. At one time, they were utilized extensively for food and clothing by coastal natives. Between the early 1900s and late 1960s, they were hunted commercially and their populations regulated by predator control programs. However, increasing public sympathy toward marine mammals prompted changes in management and in 1970, harbour seals, northern elephant seals, and Steller and California sea lions were protected under the federal Fisheries Act. The northern fur seal has been protected since the early 1900s
Aren't you glad you booked your charter with Cap'n Biz and Spirit Charters? Return from Spirit Charters to Secret Cove Hideaway
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