Mayne Island Nightmare: Selling rec property in a collapsing market.

[RFM]

Blame Skook! He got me started and I can’t stop.

I have never been to Mayne Island.

Having a relative who lives ‘off the grid’ and having spent time with him and his family, I wondered how comparable it must be to live on an island. My relative can usually (weather permitting) get in the car and drive 18 miles to the local town of Medford (population 75,000) where he will find Costco, Walmart, Harry & David and on and on. But, as the Klingsats found out, although there is a small grocery store, a contact for Alcoholics Anonymous and a dentist Doc Holliday (OK, I made that name up!) on Mayne Island, there is little access to basic medial care and many other aspects of Mayne Island life must make for a simpler and more ‘relaxed’ lifestyle. But the question occurred to me: ‘what if I want to really go shopping, see a doctor, buy a LED flatscreen, have my computer serviced, get new eyeglasses, have a frozen yogurt or generally get ‘off island’? How do I do that and what does it cost?

The answer is simple; you have two choices: buy a boat like Larry Ellison or ride the BC Ferries like the rest of us pigeons. So, if I ride the BC Ferries, where does that leave me?

If you want to go to Victoria, you will go when BC Ferries pleases, which is complicated and the trip will cost you, your spouse and vehicle $61.95 return (BC Ferries assumes you want to come back; cheaper if you or your spouse are ‘seniors’ traveling Monday to Thursday and/or get a ‘Experience Card’). Note: this is NOT a nonstop trip - you stop at Otter Bay on Pender Island (exceptions apply - see, I told you the schedule was complicated!) coming and going. If you want to go to the mainland (Tsawwassen), you will go when BC Ferries pleases, which is the same complicated schedule, just above, and the trip will cost you, your spouse and vehicle $101.85 one-way OUTBOUND (similar discounts available for off-peak, ‘seniors’ but no ‘Experience Card’) and $55.10 INBOUND (don’t ask me! I was confused by the BC Ferries Fare Index). This also is NOT a nonstop trip - you stop at Sturdies Bay on Galiano Island coming and going (again, exceptions apply!). As Skook has noted in his thread about the BC Ferries, service intervals are declining and prices are increasing. Who really knows what the future holds.

Finally, I must visit the topic of Island Fever, which my ‘off grid’ relative also experienced when he lived for 10 years on the big island of Hawaii. It apparently becomes a dawning realization that no matter how big the island (at 10,432 square meters (4,028 square miles) Hawaii is HUGE compared to Mayne Island), there is no place to go, nothing much to do, few dining/entertainment/cultural/etc. options and you are stuck. For some it becomes a psychologically depressing situation. Others don’t mind. Call me extreme, but maybe you should complete the psychological test taken by submariners before deciding you want to spent the rest of your life on Mayne Island.

Whew, I’m glad I got that all off my chest!