A couple of observations:
As far as mooring in Ucluelet, I'm no expert but I don't think it's easy or affordable to find short-term moorage around Victoria/Port Renfrew, you generally need to take an annual lease and maybe that wasn't in their plans.
Secondly, boats are much cheaper to purchase in the tropics than up in Canada. There's always people down there who for health or other reasons abandon their cruising lifestyle and need to sell. They could have been bringing the boat up to Canada to sell for a profit.
We have no reason to suspect them of smuggling, but if they did, they'd have had to drop stuff off somewhere. Customs would have searched the boat and their luggage very thoroughly.
Also to add, the 3 days would have involved getting customs/ insurance/licencing paperwork, plus packing up all the stuff they'd had on board for the long sailing trip, cleaning the boat etc.
! (Or if you have, so have I!!). I think it’s possible that some of the discrepancies come from having people from two different families commenting, some of whom may not have all the details directly, or may have heard them second or third hand.
