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Taxi info for San Juans and Vancouver Island area?

cougarmeat

Paddler
Joined
Sep 17, 2012
Messages
1,195
Location
Bend OR USA
A while back, Alex reported about a trip where, considering his young passenger, opted to take a water taxi back to Anacortes.
What service do you recommend for specific areas? For example, a taxi you might use to go from James Island to Anacortes is probably not the one you'd use to go from Patos to Orcas for Stuart Island to Friday Harbor.

In the Vancouver Island area, you have the southern Gulf Islands and all the way up the coast. Then you have Tofino and that area.

When Steve and I taxied into the Broughtons - we'd taxi out and paddle back - the cost was a LOT more than it would have been if we had planned to take the taxi from Telegraph Cove to Echo Bay and work a route from there.

So - in addition to safety devices that let friends/family know where you are and can call for help via satellite, I'd like to add the phone numbers of various water taxis to my phone.

Any good recommendations or bad experiences out there?
 
It was actually a water taxi from Sucia Island to Orcas Island, not Anacortes. I used Outer Island Excursions (website here). Outer Island Excursions runs a regular water taxi service between Sucia and Orcas during the summer season, but they'll do custom runs anytime, anywhere.

The first time I used them was in May 2020, and they only charged me the regular water taxi fare, even though they had to make a special trip for my daughter and me. The second time I used them was in July 2021, and I remember it was more expensive even though there were other passengers on that run. I suspect prices may vary depending who's on duty that day. Unfortunately, I didn't write down how much it cost either time, so I can't tell you what prices I paid. I think it was something like, they didn't charge me for the kayaks in 2020 but they did charge me for the kayaks in 2021, something like that. I do remember being impressed how responsive and flexible they were regarding pickup times and locations, considering that I was calling them on short notice due to weather.

Anyway, their website says they'll do runs pretty much anywhere, from San Juan Island in the west to Lummi Island in the east, and from Anacortes in the south to Bellingham in the north. Whatever you need, I'm sure they can handle it.

Alex
 
Thank you Alex; it must have been more a weather issue related to the James trip - or maybe it was my weather issue :)

I figure the cost would be based on the mileage so one would want to use the closest reliable taxi
 
I've used Outer Island Excursions (OIE) on and off for a number of years for trips to Sucia, Patos and non ferry serviced island for work gigs. Mostly I've enjoyed their service, but they have, seemly, always miss represented their "Sucia Island Water Taxi". It was always a charter service but looked like a taxi if the boat was full. I like to travel to Sucia midweek and off season to avoid the worst of the crowds but eventually stopped even trying. They would take my reservation but then the day before, or so, they would contact me with a "new rate" since the boat wasn't full. Basically they were asking me to pay the charter rate. I suggested that they include how full the boat was on the calendar so you could plan accordingly and help fill boats. But I don't think it ever happened.

But now it looks like they finally terminated the "Sucia Island Taxi" and are running it as charter service, which is what it often really was. On this year's trip Patos Island for the Lighthouse Birthday party I had a chance to chat with the skipper (great guy btw) on the ride back to Orcas. It sounded like OIE and Brandt's Landing Marina had a change in business relationship (it sounded like a money thing) so OIE move some (maybe most) of their boats to Anacortes. And the large boat we were on, came from Anacortes, picked us up on Orcas then shuttled us to Patos. Then it dropped us back on Orcas on its way back to Anacortes to pick up the next whale watch tour.

So I wouldn't consider Outer Island Excursion a real taxi service any longer. Well unless you are coming with a group or a wad of cash. One of the reason I jumped into this kayaking mess :) was so I could explore my neighboring islands without relying on the OIE "taxi" service. We'll see how reliable that is. ;)
 
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