Blogs from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada, North America - page 4

We get up early and Christy from the hostel kindly drives us to the ferry terminal. (Ed jogged there yesterday to confirm tickets. Must have looked as if he needed encouragement - an Eskimo said "keep it up buddy". Or is it Inuit these days?) The advice was to take no prisoners in bagging the best spots on the top deck where those without cabins sleep. So we charged up there and congratulated each other on our semi-private corner area. An hour later when we set sail there was still only one other person anywhere remotely close. Apparently bookings plummeted this season following the ferry that sunk near here in March. (Parents - we're safely on dry land now.) The (American) crew waste no time in taking down the Maple Leaf flag of Canada once ... read more

The rain was falling softly when we awoke to mist covered hills once again. The weather didn’t look particularly inviting for a sail down the infamous Inside Passage to Port Hardy, the northern most town on Vancouver Island. Still we have been blessed by good weather so far, so why should today be any different? It was with trepidation we boarded the Queen of Prince Rupert this morning, as the ferry we were supposed to take, The Queen of the North, sank six weeks ago during the night travelling down the Inside Passage killing two! We only heard about the sinking purely by chance in Glacier National Park when watching the news. The news story was about the first sailing following the accident. Gail asked if that was our ship, and I responded that sure was ... read more

We awoke to heavy mists lying low over the estuary hiding the beautiful mountain views and the rain had returned. The very thing the Canadian immigration lady was complaining about to us the day before when we remarked how lovely the weather was. We knew the locals would be complaining about how much they were fed up with the grey over cast days and the incessant rain they would want the sunshine and blue skies of the past two days back. After breakfast Liisa backed the car up close to the deck and I was able to load the suitcases in from the same height as the car, I’m remarking on this because it was so nice not having to heave them up into the boot. We said our goodbyes to the hotel staff and told ... read more

We have enjoyed poking around Prince Rupert today. It’s a town of about 15,000, reminds both of us of small towns we have lived in. We were able to find a shoe repair place very quickly, and get my broken belly bag repaired. We were also able, finally, to replace that fresh crab dinner we had been looking forward to in Ucluelet - a nice seafood place in Cow Bay had half crab dinners for $13.95. Also had excellent chowder there! We’re catching up with our email at a nice little internet café called Java Dot Cup, and they charge only $3.50 an hour, the cheapest we’ve found so far. After posting this, we’ll head out for more exploration, and hopefully make it an early night tonight in preparation for another voyage tomorrow. It takes about ... read more