Sandy's Epic Spring Adventure - The Ferry Ride

Hullo! Well... look at me!! We have a berth on the ferry. Because this is an epic adventure you know - something like a 22 hour ferry ride!  

There are 4 berths in the cabin but we only need 3 of them... I get a berth all to myself!!

We were supposed to leave at 6 pm but... there's no sign of departure so... we might as well go and get something to eat and drink.

Ahhhh... that's better!!!

Mmmm... beary nice. It's a local brew, up from Rupert. Cool! Love these craft breweries.

Alright... yes... it's 7:00 pm and we are still here! What's the hold-up?? Well... all these trucks, trailers and cars that need to back onto the ferry.

Here comes another one... uber slow. Sigh.

There aren't that many left but... I don't think we are leaving anytime soon.

Did you know that this is the famous Inside Passage ferry ride?? Yes, it is. It's super popular in the summer, less so in the winter and shoulder season. In the summer they have 2 ferries - the Northern Expedition which is bigger and the Northern Adventure (the one we are on). In the summer, the Northern Adventure does the Rupert/Haida Gwaii route and the Expedition does the Inside Passage. Here, in the shoulder season, the Adventure is doing both routes...

We finally, finally left at 8 pm!!! Wow... seriously late. But apparently we will make up time along the way. We are going to stop at Bella Bella and Klemtu, but that's in the middle of the night.

I'm not getting up for that! This little bear is going to sleep. Oh, and in case you were wondering... Minnie had to stay in the car but the humans could go visit her every 4 hours or so. Not the best scenario but... she did OK!

***The Next Morning***

Brrrr!!! It's a bit chilly out there this morning!

But it is so gorgeous up here!!

Right then... let's me give a bit of a tour... this is the deck level with all the berths. There aren't a tonne of them, so a lot of people on main deck, where they have all the seats, had brought foamies and air mattresses and camped out there. I think those were mostly the Bella Bella and Klemtu people because by the morning, it had emptied out a fair bit!

We are supposed to get into Rupert at 4 pm today... and we might actually make that.

So pretty up here... oh... before I forget...

Do you see our wake... and the land that's directly in line with it... waayyyyy in the distance?

Yep, that land. When the ferry sails south, it's basically doing the mirror image... so sailing forward along the wake towards that island. And then, it eases to the left and continues onwards. Well, back in... 2006, on March 21/22, the Queen of the North was sailing south along this route, at night. The crew on duty on the bridge failed to make the course correction and the ferry slammed into Gil Island around midnight.

The ferry took an hour to sink so everyone made it to the lifeboats. There were boats from nearby Hartley Bay (Indigenous community) that came to the rescue as well after getting the distress signal. Once they landed, they did a head count and realized that 2 passengers were missing. They were never found and no one knows what happened to them. It's one of those weird mysteries. (Wikipedia)

As for why the crew on duty failed to make the course correction... two of them were former lovers and rumour has it that they turned down the bridge displays and alarms and got into an argument. It's also a bit of a mystery. A sad one.

We are now in the Grenville Channel, super narrow at points and beary spectacular scenery. We even saw a few whales!

We are almost to Rupert though! Which is good...

These are all the trucks, cars, etc that had to back onto the ferry...

Oh hey!!! There's a container ship at the terminal in Rupert. Did you know the Port of Prince Rupert is the 3rd busiest port in Canada (after Vancouver and Montreal). It is the deepest port in Canada and is ice-free year round. It's also 3 days closer in sailing time to Shanghai than Vancouver... 

Seee... tonnes of container cargo... that all gets put onto CN Rail and shipped east towards Prince George and Edmonton.

Prince Rupert is also a beary wet, beary cloudy place. But luckily... we are not staying here!

Right then... no photos after this... we got off the ferry and drove and drove and drove. Minnie was glad to be back in the light of day! And then we got to our destination...

Stay Tuned