The Spirit of British Columbia

In the middle of our holiday with our daughter's family, we headed out for an adventure, aiming ultimately to see the Tulip Festival in the Skagit Valley.  Step one was a trip on 'The Spirit of British Columbia', one of the two ferries plying the route between Vancouver and Vancouver Island.  I enjoy ferry crossings, so I stayed outside and took lots of pictures.

This is not the ship that we sailed on, but its sister ship, 'The Spirit of Vancouver Island', which we passed going the opposite direction.  Two ships keep busy on this route every day in the summer.  As you can see, the route is pretty scenic.

This map shows the small parcels of land on the Gulf Islands that are part of the Gulf Islands NationalPark Reserve, but it also shows the ferry route if you can see the faint white line.  The ferry left from Tsawwassen just south of Vancouver (upper right corner of the map), sailed across the Strait of Georgia, and then in between several of the islands to dock at Swartz Bay, where #2 is on the map.

While still tied up at the dock in Tsawwassen, we were just across the bay from one of the big industrial docks in Vancouver, three container ships and a coal carrier (on the left) lined up at the docks.

These looked some large ocean-going ships. though the coal carrier is not the self-unloading kind that I see on the Great Lakes.

In the far distant haze to the north you could see the skyscrapers of downtown Vancouver, but the mountains behind were lost in the clouds.

Before long we were pulling away from the empty dock.  This was one of the drive-on/drive-off ferries like the Chee-Cheemaun here in Ontario.  We drove in the bow, and drove straight off the stern.  Several full-size transport trucks were aboard.

There was a cold breeze blowing and I dressed warmly to stay outside under the wildly flapping B.C. flag.  Took several pix to get this one that actually shows the flag.

About halfway across we entered the channels between the islands, as you can see quite narrow in places.

We passed the sister ship going the opposite direction.

And we disrupted a flock of gulls, which simply whirled around and settled down again.  If I enlarge a bit of this photo, I can clearly see that these gulls have black heads, and that means they are Bonaparte's Gulls, a species I have never seen before.

This photo over the islands reminded me of the distant view of ridges in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The islands are a popular place to live, and this is the warmest corner of Canada, so you only get a minimal dose of winter.  We look forward to exploring more - tomorrow, our visit to Butchart Gardens, just over those hills.