Tuesday, October 20 2009
Do You Believe in Ferries?
Yes, the whole province looks like that.
If you're not a resident of coastal British Columbia, you may not appreciate one of the quotidian facts about our lives here: we have a fleet of ships at our command.
Well, not really. What we have is the last link in the Trans-Canada, the inter-provincial highway that connects one side of Canada (Prince Edward Island) via road, bridges, and mountain passes, through prairie and desert and the rocky Canadian Shield, all the way to the other side of the continent.
Only not really, again. Although technically our tax dollars are there to maintain a roadway from 'sea to shining sea', it all sort of stops at the edge of Vancouver, and from there you have to wade, swim, or canoe to the provincial capital of Victoria. As a sort of work-around, British Columbia maintains one of the largest ferry fleets in the world, with hundreds of thousands of tonnes under sail, carrying passengers, cars, goods and cargo across the strait of Georgia and up and down the coast to remote communities in this most beautiful of places.
It's a pretty cool fleet too: according to BC Ferries website,
At the grandest end of the spectrum are the S-Class twins, Spirit of British Columbia and Spirit of Vancouver Island. Measuring 560 feet long (picture two football fields back-to-back), these ferries can accommodate up to 2,100 people and 470 vehicles. Compare those figures with the 111-foot Nimpkish, which carries 133 people and 16 vehicles, and you get some idea of the diversity of our vessels.
I've probably taken nearly a thousand trips on our ferry fleet, between living on one of the Gulf Islands for a time, and doing business on Vancouver Island for 20 years. I love the ride, really, and wouldn't trade it for some bridge or submarine rail-tunnel-thingy. It's nice to be reminded that Canada has the most coastline of any country in the world, and that some places simply aren't reachable in any other way.
Nowadays if I have very pressing business I catch a floatplane between the mainland and my island destinations. While the ferry takes 90 minutes or so, the plane only has just enough time to reach a cruising altitude before it has to come back down to land. Normally I'm an all-about-the-journey kind of guy, but travel in a small plane is enough adventure and connected enough to the landscape for me to truly feel at one with my place in the universe.
But you can't beat a BC ferry trip. I harbour serious nostalgia for the awful clam chowder and ferry burgers of old (they've updated the foodservice tremendously, credit to them, but it lost some of the dingy-diner feel) and sleeping on grubby carpet between seats bolted to the deck. Now if I'm on business I either hit the Pacific Buffet to save time getting lunch on the other end, or I hole up in the lounge, where I can plug in my computer away from the noise of fussy babies or drooling teens enjoying peer activities, like some tycoon floating first-class across the waves.
But what I really like best of all are late-night trips. When I do consumer events or retailer visits to Nanaimo, up the coast from Victoria, rather than stay overnight I head off to Duke Point and catch the very late ferry (it gets in at 12:45 am!) back home. Two hours, sailing through the moonlit strait, and it's usually damp, windy and very cold. I bring a big parka, my pipe, and warm gloves and hat. I probably associate the pipe with being out on the darkened deck because I'm always afraid I'll look like a poseur or dork smoking a pipe–even at my age I seem to be light on the gravitas necessary to manage a Meerschaum, but I keep trying.
If you're visiting BC, I strongly recommend a BC ferries trip, either through the Gulf Islands, or to Vancouver Island. There's no better way to see the strait of Georgia, and no better example of the spirit of the province.
| Posted by Tim AT 12:57PM | 0 Comments |  |
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