Canadian Ferry

We had driven as far as you can drive, now at the northern tip of Vancouver Island. The ferry north to Prince Rupert loads at 5:45AM, so we just lined up the night before and went to sleep (paying $20 for that priviledge). The Beast got lots of comments from other travellers and the dock workers, and we were directed to the front spot, right next to the giant ferry door. This first ferry ride was 15 hours long. We filled the time sleeping, reading, watching movies on the laptop, eating, and watching the shoreline pass - the inland passage is narrow (very narrow at points) so we could easliy see waterfalls, trees, high glaciers, abandonned settlements, and even a few whales and dolphins. I wasn't really prepared for how much the ferry would Rock and Roll - While we weren't allowed on to the car deck to see, I was worriedly imagining our precious van catching a few inches of air during the largest surges. Fortunately, we found it just where we left it, but we never could explain the big wet spot we found on the van floor - like a water bottle exploded or something, but we found nothing leaking?

It is amazing, but here in Prince Rupert, this is the first rain we've encountered on the whole trip - almost a month of dry weather! At first it was very nice to hear the gentle sound of rain on the van roof as we fell asleep. Even walking around town in the drizzle was no problem with our GoreTex stuff. We did a beautiful hike through old growth rain forest and this got us soaked - inside and out. It was worth it, but now the problem is all our wet gear steaming up the inside of the van.

Tomorrow we board the US Ferry to Alaska...