Tuesday, August 16

TRAVEL DAY

From: Quatse River Campground, Port Hardy, BC.

To:Prince Rupert RV Campground, Prince Rupert, BC.

Day 309 – This is crazy. Did I say that I was not a morning person? Aaargh! I need my sleep. I was a ZOMBIE until about noon. Even Rob was a bit bleary eyed. The girls? They left last night with their knapsacks filled with food. They are backpacking it out, looking for a new home. You know, you can only push a cat so far – then they are DONE!

We had to get up at 3:30 a.m. (I mean, why go to bed at all, right?) All the items we couldn’t pack up last night because they’d be used this morning, had to be packed tightly away. As we stumbled around readying ourselves for the long ferry ride, we remembered previous times when the girls were locked away for long periods of time. We left them with plenty of dry and moist food, and water, the litter box, and even moved their heated pads into their traveling area.

At 5:35 a.m., we arrived at the ferry terminal and got in line. The line was long. All kinds of vehicles from motorcycles and bicycles to large trucks were waiting to board. It was a step-by-step process with terminal employees going to each vehicle and each walk-on passenger, checking IDs and matching names to reservation ID information, issuing tags for vehicles and boarding passes, and vehicles carrying propane and other fuels had to be checked for proper storage during the trip. We inched forward in line and when all paperwork was done, everyone was directed to a particular line of vehicles based on vehicle size; larger vehicles had to be measured to verify the length, width, and height of the vehicle matched the information submitted during the original registration. You are charged by the number of passengers in your group AND by the size of your vehicle. Once everyone was lined up in their assigned row, the ferry began loading vehicles.

After sadly saying good-bye to the girls and grabbing our bags of items for the day, we left the RV and went to the 4^th deck pursers office to check in and get our cabin assignment. Most, if not all, cabins were reserved in advance; we were glad we did it, too. We were given a cabin on the 5^th level outer deck with a decent window for our view, 2 beds, a desk & chair (good for catching up on the blog), a closet, a TV, and a private bathroom with a shower. No complaints here! It was a million times better than not having an assigned place to go and sitting in rows of people for 17 hours, especially with the always-present possibility of the latest version of COVID to worry about! We settled in and I promptly went to sleep. Zzzzzz.

I slept for about an hour. Rob roamed the ferry getting familiar with where everything was. Every ferry we’ve ever taken, passengers were not allowed back on the vehicle decks at all during the voyage. This time it was wonderful because every 3 to 4 hours it was announced on the PA system that passengers could go down to the lower deck to access items in their vehicles or visit with their pets, either at the kennel or in their vehicle, like ours. We loved it and the cats were SO much happier to be released and have a short visit and run-around. And we could scoop out the litter box and give them more food, and it was so much better than ever before. It was also cute to see all the people walking their dogs around the vehicles on the lower deck. Happy parents, happy pets.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were served. There was a restaurant and a cafe’. The restaurant was supposed to be all-you-can-eat buffets. It was closed. COVID, I guess. The cafe’ was just fine and was opened most of the day and night, therefore we always found a place to sit and eat while looking out the large windows at the scenery. Service was a little slow (they were short-handed but who isn’t these days), but the food was fine – not fantastic, but we survived, LOL.

We both took a couple of short naps, read our books, and worked on the blog. We took breaks by walking around the ferry, inside and outside decks.

Having our own room really broke the monotony, and it was SO much more peaceful than other longer ferries we’d taken. Kids were often running wild outside of the play area, in fact there was a PA announcement asking parents to stay with their kids and don’t let them jump all over, someone may get hurt. ICK. Other PA announcements let people know when various places opened and closed, i.e., the cafe’, the ferry store; which movies were playing; when we’d be arriving at Bella Bella and Port Hardy; paging individuals who needed to report to the pursers office; and asking people to PLEASE turn off their vehicle alarms.

The ferry made one stop 5 hours into the voyage. Bella Bella was a small town where we were supposed to stop briefly to allow passengers that had booked the partial trip to leave, and to allow passengers that were going to Prince Rupert from Bella Bella to board. Some vehicles were departing and some were boarding. It should have been a short visit. We had been on the upper deck taking pictures and watching the people come and go. When we headed back to our cabin, stepped off the elevator and turned the corner to our hallway, there were several ferry employees blocking the hallway; they were obviously upset. They stopped us and asked if we had a cabin there; we said, Yes, #512. We said, Why, did something happen? They were scurrying about, going into & out of cabin #520 (first cabin at the entrance of the hallway – our cabin was across the hallway and down a couple of cabins). The conferred and decided we could go past them to our cabin. They said someone was ill. I said, as we walked by, Oh no, Is it bad? And the employee shook her head, Yes.

Not too long thereafter, an announcement came on the PA that the ferry would be delayed at Bella Bella. There was a medical emergency and an ambulance had been called, that the ferry would be waiting at the dock. At one point, we heard them using a defibrillator. And there was the noise of people scurrying about. We stayed at Bella Bella an additional hour or more. There were no more announcements and no more signs of activity in our hallway. We don’t know the outcome but suspect it isn’t good news…..

The scenery was beautiful. The Inside Passage was the route that was taken – through the narrow fjords between islands and the British Columbia mainland. We’d already been on a couple of boat rides through the lower sections between Vancouver Island and the mainland. This was the same but much more wild and unpopulated. There were very few buildings and the roads were just occasional logging roads for the entire journey once we’d left northern Vancouver Island behind us. The weather was good, mostly cloudy but not cold, and later towards sunset the fog rolled in and around the mountains. We saw four Humpback Whales in a small bay – their blows – we’d passed them when we saw a tail during a dive in the distance. Various sea birds. Lots of fish jumping out of the water. Bald Eagles. Did not see Bears but based on all the wilderness we passed, we are sure there were many. Tall mountains with some snow still on top. More tall trees than you can imagine exist – trees and mountains going right down to the water. Waterfalls. Glacially-carved valleys between mountains. No civilization. There are no roads along the coast. We’ve mentioned it before. That just seems strange – that there can be so much uninhabited land left anywhere. It’s a wonderful sight to behold. And no signs of fires. It’s summer and British Columbia has had some bad summer fire disasters in the past. Thank goodness we’ve seen none of that. We are sad to leave Vancouver Island. We feel our senses have been almost overloaded after these months of extreme beauty. We are so grateful! Newfoundland was that way, too. Oh, Canada!

The PA came on one more time to let us know that we were arriving in Prince Rupert. It was 12:20 a.m. Very dark out, we took a picture of the cargo terminal. Really dark out and too tired for pictures, we were anxious to find the campground, to let the babies out, to get settled in, and to go to bed, we shuffled down to the vehicle deck with other tired passengers. We were not the only Camper, Trailer, Van, or RV looking for the campground as we all followed one another off the ferry, then got in line to check in and get our campsites. We were asleep by 2 a.m. It was a long, but interesting, day.