Since I was staying in Campbell River on Vancouver Island the last three days, I cancelled the ferry I had reserved from Victoria to the mainland (I’m not really sure why I booked that one anyway…) and got a reservation on another ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay, a few miles north of Vancouver.
(Photo credit: Screensave of Google Maps image)
Ignore the light blue line. And ignore the fact that it is showing travel by car. Of course my car was stowed several decks below me, but I was initially in the top indoor level of the ship with comfortable seats, tables and a cafeteria, and later went up to the outdoor viewing deck where there were some not-as-comfortable seats and tables in a semi-enclosed area with windows but I opted to walk around (in the cold and WIND) to take some photos. I had dressed appropriately knowing it would be quite nippy outside, but still had to forego trying to wear any kind of hat.
These photos were all taken using my smartphone. I took lots of photos with my digital camera and zoom lens but they are not blogworthy. Between the wind and trying to stabilize myself to take the shots, those photos are all blurry.
First, a view out of the window as we set sail out of Nanaimo:
Once we were out on the open water there wasn’t much to see until we started to approach the mainland. My Airbnb hosts in Campbell River told me I might see whales but I never saw any people onboard react as if there had been sightings and my experience has been that even if we did, it would be hard to anticipate the event and zoom in enough to get a decent shot. So I just enjoyed the ride.
I realize there will be lots of repetition in these photos but there were such interesting land masses (little islands closest and the mainland in the background) I wanted to capture the wide variety of things I was seeing.
I was surprised I was able to get a good panorama shot given the wind and movement of the ship:
These are as we were getting closer to the mainland and some of the land masses were a tad clearer. I am convinced that in and around Vancouver itself the haze is due to smog. Not sure where the smoke from the wildfires in Alaska goes but it may be contributing to this as well. Either way it’s a shame, as these views would be even more spectacular if they were clear. Sadly, such is the case in most places these days…
I decided that if there was some calamity which befell the ship, this was MY life raft:
We were getting closer to our arrival terminal and were also getting a better look at downtown Vancouver, or as they call it up here (for any sizeable town), City Centre.
And as we were getting closer to land we started to see other small ships out on the water.
This was a very pleasant experience and was the start of what would become a very unusual day.
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