A DAY ON THE WATER.
Day 255 – The rain and clouds are gone and it’s warming up. Just in time for the weekend, the campground and tourist activities will be full. Today was the perfect day to spend on a boat. We arrived at the dock in Port Alberni at 7:30 a.m. On the way to Port Alberni, we passed Cathedral Grove. There were already a few cars parked in the parking lot. We will definitely have to go early when we visit this area.
We departed at 8 a.m. on the Frances Barcley. This was a three-level boat. The bottom level contained 4 very small restrooms, rows of seats, and a small kitchen with several seats with tables to eat at. We had brought Subway sandwiches to eat at lunchtime. The middle level was where most people spent their time. There was indoor seating that looked fairly comfortable and plenty of benches outside for those who wanted to be outside to view the scenery. The upper level was where the captain was driving the boat. All the life rafts were up there, too. And there were two benches. We hurried aboard and grabbed a bench upstairs – a better viewpoint all around and less people (no fighting over viewpoints for pictures). It was a gorgeous day with calm water and very little wind (at that point). The scenery was amazing.
The Alberni Inlet is fjord-like. We were traveling south and west. It wasn’t very narrow and it wasn’t that wide – like traveling on a fairly wide river or a fairly narrow lake. There was very little population or industry; it was remote almost immediately upon leaving Port Alberni. On both sides on the inlet trees grew right down to water level; there were hills and mountains, some with snow still on the peaks. The water was deep blue and appeared to be very clean. There were only a few very small villages along the way, most of which have no roads going to them. This boat services these towns by bringing and picking up mail from tiny post office docks. The boat delivers goods to these towns and picks up things to go elsewhere. And it delivers and picks up passengers traveling by foot (it’s not a ferry that carries cars or trucks). You can book a place on this boat and spend an entire day traveling from Port Alberni to the west coast, stopping at these towns (and one bigger one, Bamfield), then travel back to Port Alberni the way you came.
Two stops were made in the morning and one in the afternoon to deliver mail, a couple of people, and to deliver supplies and pick up used furniture (of all things).
The little villages were fascinating. Many houses were floating on the water, but not quite houseboats. These villages could only be reached by water or seaplane. And some, we’re guessing, were mostly occupied seasonally.
We encountered plenty of small boats out on the water, fishing. We also encountered a larger commercial fishing ship, the Sunderoey, a “bottom dragger” out of Vancouver. We had first seen this boat moored near our boat at Port Alberni. More about this ship later. There was the occasional kayaker and a couple of sailboats. People were friendly and many of them waved as we went by.
We arrived at Bamfield on the west coast around noon. Bamfield was a larger town, and it was very isolated with no other towns around it. It could only be reached by seaplane, boat, or driving for a couple of hours on a gravel and dirt logging road. It did have a store or two, a lodge, a beach, a lively fishing dock and marina and the businesses that they bring. Some of the people on our boat were getting off at Bamfield and staying for several days. And some people got on the boat after they had finished staying there. There were two sides of the town, East and West Bamfield. We stopped at West Bamfield and most of the people on the boat got off. The Captain had told everyone to be back at the West dock in 1 ½ hours, so some went to walk around the town while others walked over to the beach, and of course, some got off to stay awhile. We stayed on board, ate our lunch, then watched as the crew unloaded mail and goods for the town, and took on some mail and goods in return. Then our boat went across the harbor to East Bamfield and the whole process of loading and unloading was repeated.
Only three other visitors had stayed on board during this break at Bamfield. One was a really interesting guy who was a photographer that was writing an article about the last of the mail boats. He was from Victoria. He and Rob had several conversations about photography and how great their cameras were, grin. The two other people were a couple from England who had just spent 3 nights in West Bamfield at the lodge. They LOVED it. They said that they sat on the deck at the lodge and watched the Bald Eagles fly back and forth right in front of them.
On the west side of the small harbor, the dock that our boat used to deliver passengers and freight was not large enough to be used by more than one boat at a time. Remember that ship I mentioned earlier? While our boat was docked letting people off and doing their mail and supply delivery thing, our boat’s Captain received a call from the Coast Guard. He was told that he would have to move our boat because the bottom dragger ship had engine trouble and was on its way to tie up at this dock, the only one large enough for it to use. Now that we were ready to return to pick up our passengers at the same dock, what next? The problem: how to pick up the people for the return trip to Port Alberni, the ones that were happily walking around Bamfield, if the dock was going to be occupied by a different ship? So the whole time we were docked at East Bamfield, the Coast Guard and the Captain were trying to figure out a way to arrange pick up of our passengers at a different location, when these passengers were expecting to meet our boat back at the dock at West Bamfield, now occupied by a disabled, bottom-dragging commercial fishing vessel. The Coast Guard said that if it looked like we could not get a place to dock safely, then they would call in a water taxi to bring the passengers to us (this would take several water taxi trips).
Our Captain decided we would go back to West Bamfield, across the harbor, and try to get into a much smaller pleasure boat dock connected to the store. With the Coast Guard watching over us and running back and forth between the ship and our boat, our Captain skillfully maneuvered us to this small pleasure boat dock at an angle, narrowly missing the bottom dragger at the adjacent dock.
Meanwhile, boats had come in to dock and go to the store – they were backing up and trying to figure out where they would dock since we were there. And the passengers had showed up at the original docking point when the break was over, only to find our boat gone and another ship in its place. What a mess, LOL. Eventually the Coast Guard directed the passengers to the smaller store dock.
We were glad we had stayed on board. It was much more exciting there to watch all of this unfold. Eventually, the passengers made their way to the store’s dock and boarded, and the Captain was able to back us out of our spot, with the Coast Guard directing traffic to keep other boats out of our way. We left Bamfield a little past schedule and traveled back the way we came.
The wildlife: Bald Eagles, Sea Gulls, no whales, an adorable, big Sea Otter floating on its back as happy as could be, we saw fish jumping right out of the water, and drum roll please – Bears! Black Bears looking for fish at water’s edge – once there were two together, the other times the Bears were alone – and many different times at different locations, not all in one place. YAAA!
The scenery was great and it was very peaceful. The high today was 75 degrees and it was sunny with few clouds. We were so relaxed by the time we got back to Port Alberni at 5:15 p.m., I swear we could’ve gone to sleep right there in the boat. But it was dinner time and we had such a great day, we decided to go out to dinner at the restaurant near the marina with a wonderful water view – it was closed. We drove around looking for somewhere else and found a great brewpub called, Twin Cities Brewing. No water view but they had beer for Rob.
Twin Cities Brewing in Port Alberni was good enough that we’ll go back again before we move out of this area. I don’t drink beer so I had 2 cocktails called the West Coast Mule and Rob tried two different beers: a porter and a stout. We split the Focaccia, a Caprese sandwich, and a small Goat Cheese pizza. All were very good. When we got back to the RV after being gone more than ten hours, we were a little worried because we are rarely away from the girls that long. No need to worry; we don’t think they even missed us (which is good!) Tomorrow we won’t be gone so long. We have a whale watching trip in the afternoon.