Vancouver Island, tip-to-tip

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Journey to The Broken Islands

Port Alberni

Sunday, August 2

The next morning, we were up fairly early. We had a specific time to hit - the 7 a.m. departure of the Lady Rose Marine Services ferry that would take us from the town of Port Alberni to the backcountry lodge from whence we'd start our kayaking.

We drove our vehicles down to the Lady Rose Marine Services dock, dropped off everyone's gear, then moved the cars to a nearby long-term parking lot. Many people were busy coming and going at the dock - most of them outdoorsy-looking paddler types who were probably doing the same thing we were. Large white plastic bins were being filled with camping and paddling gear, all under the watchful eye of a few blue-shirted Lady Rose employees.

Lady Rose Marine Services

Gear Packing

Waiting for the boat

After registering our presence and filling up a few bins with our own stuff, we relaxed for a bit and waited for the 8 a.m. departure time. We wandered about the nearby waterfront area, sampling a local donut shop (very cool auto-donut-generating machine they had inside), and lounging about on some park benches near the water. Around twenty minutes before 8 a.m., we gradually made our way back and boarded our ferry vessel - the MV Frances Barkley. It was a vintage-y-looking ship, but it seemed stout and well-kept.

Port Alberni

Portside Donuts

Donuts on the Waterfront

Embarcation

Fraternal Banter

Forward Thrust

It was another beautiful clear and calm morning on Vancouver Island, and we stayed up above the enclosed passenger cabins to enjoy the surroundings. Our captain expertly backed the boat out of dock, then charted a course nearly straight south, down the long fjord of Alberni Inlet.

Cptn McDonald is Vigilant

Like Father, Like Son

Beautiful morning, Alberni Inlet

Our ship seemed to effortlessly glide up to its cruising speed - a modest 11 knots (just under 20 km/hr) - with an easy lope-lope-lope coming from its low-revving eight-cylinder diesel engine. Standing next to the open bridge, I was impressed with how the Captain vigilantly scanned the waters ahead. He'd probably done this route thousands of times before, but was still very professionally alert.

Sporty Cargo

Stern Deck

True Canadian Scenery

I spent the next little while exploring the various (public) areas of the ship - stern, mid and upper viewing decks, passenger cabins, and cafeteria. It was clearly a fairly old vessel (apparently built in the 1950s), and had a sort of old-worn nautical feel to it. It felt well-used and well-cared for. From the upper passenger cabin, one could look to the bow and see the stacks of kayaks, stored and ready for Pacific Coast action.

Lower Passenger Cabin

Coastal Mists

Coastal fog ahead

Alberni Inlet is a very long fjord - well over 30 kilometres in length. Bordered on both sides by forested mountains, it is a scenic journey - but still can get slightly monotonous at a speed of 11 knots. The scenery got more interesting as we approached the inlet's mouth and started to traverse through the larger channels and various islands that dotted this part of the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Mist-shrouded Headland

Junction Passage

Crew's View

The captain had his vigilance tested as we cut through a bank of coastal fog in Junction Passage. A small recreational fishing boat made a navigational error in the fog and cut across the MV Frances Barkley's path, coming within a hair's breadth of being sideswiped. As the little boat glided by just feet to one side, one of the occupants looked up. "That was close", he said in a normal conversational voice, and I could hear him quite clearly.

Baeria Rocks

Sechart Channel

Sechart Lodge

Not long after our near-collision, the coastal fog seemed to burn away and we came into view of the small cluster of buildings that is Sechart Lodge. A former forestry outpost and whaling station, Sechart Lodge is now both a place for lodging and a rental and launching off point for trips into the nearby area, including the Broken Islands group of Pacific Rim National Park - where we were headed.

We glided into the dock just after 11 a.m., and soon our bins were unloaded and opened. Nearby, lined up and ready to go, our rental kayaks awaited.