Anchor Bay Campground staff, and Albion NYE dive

The girlfriend and I headed out at 4:30 on the 2 1/2 hour drive to Anchor Bay to meet up with Adam and Ryan. As soon as I pull up the lady starts demanding I hurry up and pay her. I ask her if it's ok if I check to make sure the water conditions are safe for us first. She replies with "The water conditions were superb yesterday, many people had an excellent time, please provide me with monetary compensation for the use of our facilities. Please do not cause me anymore problems." It seems oddly rude but it's early so I apologize and tell her I didn't mean to cause any problems. She again tells me to hurry and not sit down there drinking beer. (It's 7 am???) She starts trash talking Ryan and Adam and says we can't go down to unload until they move. She then takes off to tell them to hurry up.

I head down to unload. She's standing there watching and tells me to hurry up again. I take 5 steps over to make sure the water is even dividable before unloading the kayaks and all the gear and she follows me and says "The water is flat, unload NOW and go." I tell her I need to check for myself. She replies that I'm no longer welcome and tells me to leave. Okaaaaaay. Sorry camp Nazi, you got it. I'll never spend a dollar here again. FYI the breakers were too big for my girlfriend who's new to ocean kayaking to safely launch in.

After leaving I get a text from Ryan that her methed out henchman called the sheriff on me to report me as driving drunk. Hahahahaha unreal...long drive for this extremely rude lady to ruin my day.... I wrote the experience up on their page reviews, but of course it was immediately deleted and I was blocked from the page ;D


Luckily I gave DG a ring and he was going out. Shot Kathy a text and she headed down to Albion too. Duane, Dan, Dan 2, Kathy, and the girlfriend and I headed out and found 35'-40' vis!!!

Me and Duane parked in 45/50' and did a dozen or so drops looking for vermillion. No luck, but found at least one ling on every drop. One drop 3 were swimming up to me. At 50' this stupid ling swims up to me, and I push him away with my gun. He doesn't get the hint and swims back at me so I popped him.

Went in a bit shallower and my girlfriend shot her first limit of lings while I was off getting skunked hahaha...... Kathy shot a nice ling and a cab.

Great day with amazing conditions. Glad it turned around from that nightmare experience of being treated like trash for no reason.

Told you not to loiter and drink on their property.  Especially at 7am.

Nice hanging out with everyone.  Great day.  Still not completely over my cold so it was a little challenging.  A couple of us did end up finding some Verms.  Lots of lings out there. 

Nick and I went to Anchor Bay on Christmas weekend and had a pretty similar experience. She was super rude and didn't like where we parked, was super passive aggressive in letting us know we were parked in the wrong spot by telling her boyfriend super loudly over and over, and charged us more than the sign said it would cost. There was only one other car there all day. Not sure why it was a problem to park where we initially parked.

You made the right call in going to Albion and plus you dove with some awesome people!! Congrats on the fish and sweet pics!

Do they have new managers?  I haven’t been there in awhile but never been treated like that. 

Sounds like the same thing that has been going on for the last handful of years. I refuse to spend my money there.

Well I guess I'm glad I cancelled my trip there this weekend. Not a good way to bring in the new year. lad you got out and had a blast.

Do they have new managers?  I haven’t been there in awhile but never been treated like that.

Someone did mention a new ownership switch a handful of years ago in one of the reviews. From what it sounds like these two treat most people this was. I talked to Jason last night and he said a few years ago all those trailer people and that lady banded together and bought it up. And now they all run it like Nazis. I know she was there a couple years ago. I remember her being unfriendly... but not like this. She called the methy henchman over to protect her like I was going to assault her or something. Crazy lady   

Damn, sorry to hear about the start to the day but it sounds like it ended well. I haven't had the "pleasure" of dealing with Anchor Bay and definitely don't plan to. Have had similar experiences at Timber Cove and am done with that place. Both locations are great, but not worth the aggravation.

Cheers,
Brad

maybe we should have a mass 7 AM "loiter and drink beer party!" up there! JK. Albion seems to always have a nice vibe and I've met some good people both in the campground and out on the water

Wow, that sucks about the camp hosts. I was there 4 years ago with Rider and they couldn't have been nicer. If I'm going to make that drive, I'll hit up Albion now instead.

Never ever had a problem with Tess.

Never ever had a problem with Tess.

Super bizarre. She’s always seemed snappy but this was straight up psychotic out of nowhere. Sorry I’m not into drowning my girlfriend Tess!! It makes it worse she was demanding we go out repeating it was flat. RyanG went out and got into trouble, and he’s experienced, not new like she is. 

Heard same

That's very odd. We've been camping there for 25 yrs or more. About ten years ago, the family that owned wanted to sell the place for a resort development. They found out the easements from the owners of the homes behind the Anchor Bay Store pretty much prevented that. A group of "annual renters" formed an LLC and ponied up the money to buy it. Now, there are 40 families and individuals who own it. Tessa, the office manager, has no share in it, and neither does Fred, the maintenance man. To my certain knowledge, neither of them does drugs of any kind, and Tessa is adamantly anti-drugs. She is, however, quite religious. Over the years, Tessa has suffered enough abuse to be very direct, but she is not insulting, and her English is excellent, if slightly Tagolog accented. Writing her as speaking pidgin-English smacks of racism. Fred is an ex-marine and a very straight shooter. He masks being a Hoosier fool, but he's very smart. Treat them with kindness and respect, and that's what you'll get back.

As an addendum, the office opens at 9 am. If you saw Tessa, it's because you got her out early. You can always pay the day-use and launch fees in an envelope at the window.

That's very odd. We've been camping there for 25 yrs or more. About ten years ago, the family that owned wanted to sell the place for a resort development. They found out the easements from the owners of the homes behind the Anchor Bay Store pretty much prevented that. A group of "annual renters" formed an LLC and ponied up the money to buy it. Now, there are 40 families and individuals who own it. Tessa, the office manager, has no share in it, and neither does Fred, the maintenance man. To my certain knowledge, neither of them does drugs of any kind, and Tessa is adamantly anti-drugs. She is, however, quite religious. Over the years, Tessa has suffered enough abuse to be very direct, but she is not insulting, and her English is excellent, if slightly Tagolog accented. Writing her as speaking pidgin-English smacks of racism. Fred is an ex-marine and a very straight shooter. He masks being a Hoosier fool, but he's very smart. Treat them with kindness and respect, and that's what you'll get back.

As an addendum, the office opens at 9 am. If you saw Tessa, it's because you got her out early. You can always pay the day-use and launch fees in an envelope at the window.

Sorry bud, you're wrong. I am quoting verbatim what she said, how she said it. So if her English is good, then this must not have been Tessa. I did absolutely NOTHING to warrant the straight up insulting rude behavior. In fact I went out of my way to be extra polite once she had already insulted me just to try and defuse the tension, however she continued pushing more and more. As I mentioned in the first post, its early and I understand we aren't all too chipper at 7am, which is why I allowed her to speak to me so rudely for so long before I had enough.

As far as paying at the window, again incorrect. As soon as we pulled in Fred jumped in front of us speaking 90mph like he was on something, and told us to wait while he got her. He physically blocked us with a cone until she came storming out and starting demanding we pay immediately without delay for even a question. I would have loved nothing more than to pay in an envelop and go about my day rather than have her stand over us watching and yelling to hurry up.

Look at their reviews for yourself, this isn't the first experience like this involving those two. I can't say those were 100% accurate but I can say that about mine, since I witnessed it first hand.


You can say whatever you want and believe I deserved the way I was treated, but as an ocean goer you should understand safety and how ridiculous it is to not allow us to look, and demand we launch immediately. Especially considering it was NOT safe, and an experienced guy got into trouble.