The Discovery Coast Passage - Part 5

  Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada
Monday, August 27, 2007

Date of Trip: August 13, 2007

Blog Written:  August 27, 2007

Distance Traveled: 13 hours by ferry

Discovery Coast Passage
 
So what exactly is the Discovery Coast after which this passage is named?
 
It is the British Columbian central coast line that extends from Port Hardy north to Bella Coola and includes the communities of Namu, McLoughlin Bay , Bella Bella, Shearwater, Klemtu, Ocean Falls , and the Hakai Pass area.

82 - Bella Coola to Port Hardy

81 -Discovery Coast Passage from Bella Coo

Discovery Coast is the buff coloured coast

 


This is an area largely inaccessible by road, particularly before the " Freedom Highway " was built to Bella Coola from Anahim in 1996.
 
Even the seasonal Discovery Coast Passage was only launched in 1996. The connection is made by one ferry - the Queen of Chilliwack operated by BC Ferries, a publicly owned corporation.
 
Queen of Chilliwack http://www.wellandcanal.ca/salties/q/queenofchilliwack/chill iwack.htm

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Considering that the route includes full exposure to the Pacific Ocean , I was somewhat concerned about the size of this ship at a gross tonnage of 2,476. Some of the ships serving the Vancouver - Victoria route are larger than that. Fortunately the weather was excellent during our voyage and the size of the ship was not an issue.
 
I was hoping to make a voyage on BC Ferries' "newest" acquisition, the MV Northern Adventure. It was launched into service on the 18 hour Prince Rupert to Port Hardy route on March 20, 2007 . I say "newest" because it is a refitted Spanish ferry bought by BC Ferries to replace the largest ship in the fleet, the Queen of the North which sank on March 22, 2006 . As this route was already fully booked, the Inside Passage trip was impossible.
 
The sinking of the Queen of the North is indeed an interesting story which I chronicled in EXCURSIONS: Blog No. 7 - Prince Rupert and the Sinking of the Queen of the North.
 
With the MV Northern Adventure, BC Ferries also broke new ground in the ship naming game since all of the ships of the company either bore the moniker of "Queen of ------" or "Spirit of -------".
 
 
BC Ferries is the main ferry company in British Columbia with 39 ferries and 24 routes.
The ferry service stretches the whole length of BC's coast and is one of the largest fleets of its kind in the world. BC Ferries is the main link to Vancouver Island , the Sunshine Coast , the Gulf Islands , and the Queen Charlotte Islands .
 
http://www.bcferries.com/
 
From personal experience, it is BC Ferries that makes life on the coast in British Columbia something special.
 
Having lived in Victoria for four months last year, it was always a pleasure to take the ferry from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassan. It was one and a half hours of relaxation and beautiful scenery especially through the Active Pass area. The cafeteria food is of good quality and the prices are reasonable.
 
Victoria is also close to the Gulf Islands , such as famous Saltspring Island which are all connected by BC Ferries.
 
The downside is the cost in getting off Vancouver Island . For two people and a car the Vancouver passage would be in the neighbourhood of $65 one way.
 
Speaking of cost, what does the Discovery Coast Passage cost, a voyage of 13 hours?
 
Cost per person is $138.30 plus tax
Car is $104.15 plus tax
 
While it may appear expensive, suffice it to say that in its third quarter results, the BC Ferries Corporation incurred a net loss of $1.9 million.
 
Since only the Queen of Chilliwack serves this route, sailings in the summer occur generally every second day.
 
I was disappointed by the fact that our voyage was without stop, meaning there was no opportunity to see Bella Bella, nor any of the other stops which are part of some sailings.
 
As the photos attest, the voyage is an extremely pleasant experience on a beautiful day such as we had.

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19 - it's not a cruise to Alaska, but ---

 

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46 - spectators

70 - very happy to be here

We would all like to have taken an Alaskan Cruise. If you can't have that, the Inside Passage from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy, which includes the spectacular Granville Channel, and to a lesser extent, the Discovery Coast Passage, is a taste of the beautiful scenery at a fraction of the cost.
 
The early part of the Discovery Coast Passage down the North Bentink Arm of the Burke Channel is the most spectacular part of the route since the Arm is bordered by high snow capped mountains and occasional views of spectacular glaciers.

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One cannot imagine the amount of photography that takes place during a passage like this. A dollar per photo taken during the passage would undoubtedly have covered the annual budgetary deficit of a country like Belgium . I am engaging in hyperbole but in this age of digital photography where one no longer pays for a role of film you can shoot anything that moves and if it doesn't move, that's ok; shoot it too several times over.
 
Most of us have a need to capture beautiful moments in one way or another. For most people it is photography. For other people like me, it is photography and blogging.
 
About thirty years ago I did a lot of slide photography but I gave up on that because I got tired of carrying around a large camera and paying for the film.
 
Since getting my first digital camera before my Argentina trip in 2006, there has been no stopping me but I notice I am downright niggardly in the number of photos I take compared to some of the Europeans around me.
 
As the North Bentick Arm flows into the Burke Channel, the scenery becomes less spectacular as the high mountains and glaciers give way to just high mountains. I was taken in particular by one such mountain which to me contained a beautiful form of an elephant head and trunk. No one else seemed to notice, but it was unmistakable.

49 - can you se the head and trunk of an elehphant

 
On the lower part of Burke Channel we saw Namu from afar. It is the oldest settlement on the coast featuring a cannery that operated from 1893 to 1970.
 
As excavations show artifacts going back 10,000 years, one is in awe of the history present in such a place and saddened by the news that all that remains is a caretaker couple in a deserted village.
 
BC Ferries adds a definite touristy slant to this passage as there are frequent announcements about historical sights and the sighting of dolphins and killer whales.
 

71 Dianna;s photo of dolphins

73 - the killer whales!

In one of the more bizarre announcements, the bridge invited passengers to try and spot a kayaker which was scheduled to be picked up just beyond Namu since they had not been able to spot him.
 
This unleashed a flurry of binocular gazing on the part of the passengers and frequent false sightings of phantom kayaks. In the end, there was no pick-up, much to the disappointment of everyone.
 
For the Europeans, what could be quainter than a huge ferry stopping to pick up a lone sea kayaker in the far north of BC? The heck with the Europeans, I would have liked to have seen it too.
 
Speaking of the Europeans, as I mentioned in my previous blog, this truly was a bi-lingual passage - German and English.
 
Kayakers who were on board right from Bella Coola were quick to hang out their wet equipment in the atrium on the top deck. The ensuing smell made human inhabitation impossible but at least their equipment was nice and dry by the end of the voyage.

09 - kayakers drying theri equipment

 
Considering the beautiful weather, it did not take long for passengers to stake out prime real estate on deck providing the best chairs for sunbathing and just generally relaxing and enjoying this wonderful day.
 
Therein lies perhaps the best part of an extended passage -   just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

53 - relaxing on the passage

59 - this is what most passengers where doing

 
Even Glenn, who owns a stress provoking public accounting firm back in the Detroit area, was able to relax a bit in these circumstances.

58 Glenn catching some sun

 
We also enjoyed a tasty evening meal of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, one of several excellent choices available in the cafeteria.

70 - great food on board at reasonable prices

 
I was disappointed that there was not a 110 V electrical outlet to be had on the ship. I would have liked to plug in my laptop to do a bit of blogging. Since the ship was built in Norway in 1978, the electrical outlets were for 220 V plugs and there certainly were no computer work stations.
 
Once we came near the end of Fitz-Hugh Sound, the announcement was made to take Gravol which some passengers use to prevent sea sickness. We were indeed about an hour away from full exposure to the Pacific Ocean .
 
That always brings on a wave of anxiety on my part since I am susceptible to sea sickness.
 
My worst case was on a passage in 1978 between the Greek islands of Rhodes and Crete . I became so sea sick and vomited so often that I came to a state of complete despair.
 
My next major exposure to sea sickness was in 2000, during the passage between Puerto Natales and Puerto Monte in Chile . It is a three day trip up the Chilean archipelago and is considered one of the world's great passages. During that voyage I also got sea sick but because I took Gravol, it was not as severe as in Greece .
 
While I felt sorry for myself, I think I felt sorrier for the poor beef cattle which were crammed into the back of huge transport trucks being transported by ferry from Tierra del Fuego to the cattle market in Puerto Monte. By the third day I finally saw some hay being thrown their way and some water being doused on them.
 
I particularly felt sorry for the poor beasts that, weakened after days without feed, fell to the floor of the packed trucks.
 
Luckily on this day of the Discovery Coast Passage, the swells of the Pacific were noticeable but not severe enough to provoke the dreaded sea sickness
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As night settled in, we slipped into the Port Hardy Harbour as smooth as silk and in rapid succession we were on our way to the campground.

 
Around the crackling campfire later that evening, there was much discussion of the wonderful day which had just transpired in our lives, not to mention the life time of memories accumulated.

74 - the end of a long day in Port Hardy

 
Update:
 
Today on Radio Canada , the French CBC, I was astounded to hear that the Queen of Chilliwack was taken out of service following a "hard" landing at Port Hardy last evening, right around the time that I wrote this blog.
 
Out of service till the results of a naval inspection had confirmed that the ship had not suffered any structural damages.
 
Five passengers had been injured, the most serious being a passenger who was thrown from a staircase during the collision with the dock.
 
Considering how this is a maneuver which repeats itself a thousand times, I wonder how this could happen. However, one can never underestimate the capacity for human error.
 
It reminds me of the manner in which the Spirit of Vancouver Island landed in Tsawwassan (Vancouver) on Friday, August 17.
 
Glenn and I were at the car deck level watching the landing just metres away from the dock. I suddenly instinctively yelled out "Watch out, we are going too fast, we are going to hit". We both ran back from the rails and within moments the huge ship bounced off one of the protectors of the dock with a huge bang reverberating through the car deck.
 
To us it was noteworthy but Dianna, who was still on an upper deck, did not feel the impact.
 
Nevertheless, can't they slow down!

Best Photos for Blog 23

www.slideshare.net/lobo2007