9/26/08

Based on all the snarky comments I made in my last entry about the ferry line and loading procedure, one might get the (erroneous!) idea that I don’t like the ferry.  But the fact is, I love the ferry. A lot.  I love skimming through the water, scouting for wildlife, watching the scenery float by, and most of all the fact that you can walk around while being transported somewhere, with food and beverage readily available whenever you want it.  And no assigned seating!  No being squished into a seat next to the largest person you have ever seen in your life, and hey, if that child is kicking the back of your seat, just get up and walk away.  In fact now that I think of it, the ferry is my favorite form of public transportation.  More spacious and free than planes, trains or busses – and certainly less harried.  Now back in the good old days, I loved to fly the friendly skies, but we all know how far downhill that particular mode of transport has gone, so I won’t start on that tirade.

Anyway, after spending two and a half days effortlessly riding along on the ferry, I had no desire to go inland and drive the 1000 requisite miles needed to get back to Bellevue.  Plus, I wanted to see some whales, and was hoping to spend some time on Vancouver Island before the end of our trip.  With a little convincing (is this a road trip or a BOAT trip??), Jessica got on board both figuratively and literally, and we made our reservation on the BC Ferries down Canada’s Inside Passage to Port Hardy.  

We booked our trip in person at the BC Ferry terminal in Prince Rupert, mostly because we wanted to find out how strict their published height limitation actually was.  A woman processed our reservation and measured the van with a very technical apparatus made of two by fours.  She determined our roof bag was over the height limit and it would cost an extra $240.  Since it was a sunny day, we decided to remove the roof bag and return the next morning underheight, and retaining our $240.  The ferry agent agreed, but warned us that in the morning we would drive under a laser, making certain we were under the stated height limitation.

We headed up to Roosevelt Park near the hospital on Summit Avenue in Prince Rupert – this park has lovely views of the harbor and interesting Haida and Tsimshian totem poles.  As I mentioned, we were lucky to have a nice sunny day, since a few days earlier we had noticed our roof bag was retaining quite a bit of water.  And by quite a bit, I mean several inches of standing water, not only in the bag, but in the lining between the inner and outer layers of the bag.  Jessica had attempted to fix this (as you can see in the photos taken near Sheep Mountain) - we had removed some items, but the boat was still in the roof bag, along with plenty of water.

Thankfully we were able to spread both the bag and boat out to dry on a couple of picnic tables.  Meanwhile we sat in the sun, cleaned out the van and chatted with a couple of locals.  We had noticed Prince Rupert was a bit different than the rest of BC.  It seemed more industrial, somewhat rougher, except for some cute shops on 3^rd Ave.  (We did eat a delicious lunch at Angelo’s on 3^rd, but it was for sale so it may not be in business in the future.  I have also read Cow Bay is nice, but we did not visit that area of town.)  We stayed in the Highliner Plaza Hotel which seemed like a good choice since it was the tallest building in town and on the waterfront.  However, we went out for a stroll to find a restaurant in the evening and found numerous people wandering the streets near the hotel in varying states of sobriety.  There seemed to be a violent undertone and many of the street wanderers were kids which we found somewhat disturbing. After peeking into many different restaurants, we ended up at the Waterfront Restaurant at the Crest Hotel – a fine restaurant and hotel in a nicer part of town – if you are travelling to Prince Rupert I would recommend staying here exclusively. 

After a short night in our hotel listening to street parties and the accompanying shouting, we drove to the ferry terminal at a shocking 5:30 am.  Being the third morning we had woken before dark, we were noticeably cold, tired and cranky.  We were directed to Lane 4 – no laser in sight, which was irritating after the roof bag hassle.  I was hopeful for an organized loading procedure and it started out promising with lanes 1-3 driving on the ferry in order.  Of course, then they skipped to Lane 7 and it all went downhill from there.  Our lane loaded last and once on the ferry we were directed to do a U-turn and then park in some sort of diagonal fashion.  Par for the course for ferries in the Inside Passage, I suppose.

We headed up to the upper decks and onto the prettiest ferry I have ever seen.  Blonde wood, tasteful carpeting, warm lighting and a spacious cafeteria and dining area.  At first glance, the ferry seemed perfectly designed.  However as we explored the various areas and seating options, we noticed some obvious design faults.  Our favorite area of the Alaskan ferry was the large observation area at the front of the boat – with wall to wall windows, it was perfect for viewing the scenery and wildlife.  The BC Ferry had a children’s area at the front of the boat with a solid wall blocking the view and (gasp!) a video screen mounted on it.  There were two round windows on either side of this area, but also with seats pointing toward two video screens mounted near the ceiling.  What a waste of the space at front of the boat – the potential best viewing area!  The remainder of the front area was designed like an airplane cabin with numerous rows of seats facing forward.  While the seats were fairly comfortable, they sat too low to afford good views out the windows and made for poor traffic flow, interaction or versatility of seating configuration.  Airplane design on a ferry – sacrilege!  The cafeteria similarly blocked an entire side of possible windows, as did the crew area on one of the passenger decks.  We did not view any of the cabins, some of which were billed as “luxury”, but I hope the ferry design excelled in that area to make up for the lack of views elsewhere.  *A side note – the outdoor areas of the ferry are excellent, and would be quite nice on a sunny day.  However, on a rainy or cold day (quite common on the BC coast), inside seating is preferable and necessary.

After wandering around and trying out various seats, I spied a table in the dining area, perfectly placed in front of a large window.  We quickly secured our spot and vowed to not leave its excellent views, better seating configuration and proximity to the cafeteria.  We proceeded to play cribbage and eat lunch, all while enjoying of fantastic scenery of the mountains and slim channels we were passing through.  During our meal we were approached by an American couple (most of the other passengers were Danish or German), who asked if we would mind teaching them how to play cribbage.  We agreed, somewhat hesitantly as cribbage can be a difficult game to teach, and mutually decided to start the lesson after lunch.

Meanwhile, the crew announced over the loudspeaker that we were approaching several humpback whales who were breaching and playing in the water.  Indeed we passed a pod of whales who put on an excellent show for us with lots of spouting, breaching, fin flapping and tail showing. (Please ask Jess if you want the technical whale terms for these activities ) It was very exciting, in fact, much too exciting for me to get my act together enough to capture it on film.  Needless to say, I was very pleased to have achieved my goal of viewing whales from the ferry.

Back at the table, we proceeded to teach our new friends from Arkansas how to play cribbage.  The husband sat with Jess and the wife sat with me as we played open hands, and then more competitive games.  The woman was quite the trash talker, which was hilarious and unexpected, although she and I did make quick work of turning our lucky cards into winning hands.  After several games they played together as a team and we pulled off a game of three handed cribbage.  We were proud to see we had taught them well, as they proved to be quite proficient and apt at the game.  As a bonus, they paid us in candy bars which paired deliciously with a liter of wine from the cafeteria.

We arrived in Port Hardy around 10:30pm.  Not wanting to drive too far in the dark, we simply pulled off the airport road and caught a couple of winks for the night.  We happily shopped at the very nice Overwaitea Foods the next morning, and set off for Cape Scott Provincial Park.