MV Northern Adventuring

The ferry ride from Prince Rupert to Skidegate, on Haida Gwaii, is a big deal.  You travel 93 nautical miles in somewhere between six and eight hours, depending on the seas.  It may or may not be an overnight voyage, depending how you time it.  In the summer, the ferry runs almost daily, but in the winter you must plan carefully as there are only three ferries a week.  Your voyage will take you across the Hecate Strait, which is surprisingly shallow and thus the cause of some ferocious seas when huge rollers come across the Pacific, hit the continental shelf, and speed their way across the shallow strait.

Fortunately for us, our travel day was "swells" of one metre and super warm, such that we sat out on the deck in our shirtsleeves for much of the voyage.

The slooooow process of loading.  You can't drive in and out of both ends like you can on most ferries, so it's a bit more challenging to get everyone on and off.

Leaving Prince Rupert

The Via train line ends at the ferry terminal, and cargo trains run through as well.

The top deck would be a great place on a slightly warmer day.  The ferry was built in Greece and brought over and BC-ferry-ized (I'm not 100% sure that's the official term, but it must be close).  It also features a tiki-style bar at the back, which was (unfortunately) closed.

A big highlight of the trip was all the humpback whales we saw!  Chad managed to catch a classic tail shot in this photo.

We also asked for and were granted access to the bridge, where we got to meet the captain, steer the ship (okay not really; it was on autopilot), and ask tons of questions.  This was where we learned that although the ferry can carry 600 passengers there were only 88 on board that day.  And were shown the unused fuel saving device that would regulate the boat's speed to match conditions.  Unused because one day on another route it wouldn't turn off and caused a ferry to run into its dock.  And were told about the shoals in the Strait that the ferry must navigate around - that are less than two metres deep at very low tides!  (Chad: i.e. 2m below "chart datum".)

This ferry trip will cost you (it was almost $250 each way for the two of us and our car), but even at that price it's a pretty sweet ride.