Ferry from Skidegate to Prince Rupert

Today we awoke and had cereal in the room for breakfast.  Jags has a breakfast café, but it doesn’t open until 8 AM and that is about when we planned to leave to line up for the ferry to return to the mainland.  So we came prepared on this trip with a few Ziploc bags of cereal with powdered milk so that we could add water to make milk!  I failed to realize the importance of making sure the water I added was cold.  Ew!  So the end result was kind of luke warm milk in my cereal!  It was acceptable though. 

This was the amazing view that could be found across the street from our hotel:

 I failed to mention yesterday we saw 8 deer on the drive to Masset.  The deer are smaller on Haida Gwaii and have no natural predators.  Here is a picture I captured:

 

Our short drive to the ferry terminal in Skidegate had us added to line 14 in short order.  Line 14 seemed to be designated for vehicles small enough to make a U-turn on the boat and wedge in the corner on deck 4 to allow for a an easier exit.  All of the larger ferries that run between Vancouver and Vancouver Island have exits on either end of the boat.  Drive in one end, drive out the other.  The Northern Adventure has only one entrance to drive on and off the boat.  Here is an image of what parking is like on Deck 4.

 The Raven Lounge on Deck 6 didn’t feel as cold today.  I am still glad I wore comfy long pants and my merino wool long sleeve crew neck and hoodie.  We departed Skidegate in sunshine, we encountered fog and a some rougher seas midway across (about 4 – 5 hours into the crossing) and we arrived in Prince Rupert to cloudy weather.

John up on deck as we left Skidegate:

Goodbye Haida Gwaii!!  We were blessed with extraordinary weather!

 

We again are staying at the Inn on the Harbour hotel, so that is familiar to us.  

We walked to Lee & Ann and enjoyed a salad roll and bowl of wonton soup.

 

We have one full day in Port Hardy tomorrow where we plan to hike – so hopefully the weather cooperates.

 

The day after that that, we will take the ferry on the inside passage from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy on the northeastern corner of Vancouver Island.  We are really excited about that ferry – the views are supposed to be spectacular.  When we first booked this trip five years ago, securing a spot on that ferry was the lynchpin that failed.  COVID happened and BC Ferries cancelled our reservation because we were from out of the province and they needed to reduce the numbers of passengers on the ferries.  It has taken five years of coordinating my work schedule and other vacation plans before we were able to rebook this circuit through BC.  We are so very happy to be able to enjoy this vacation in 2025.