BC Ferries boats are no cruise ships. There just isn't too much to do on them. Well, unless you’re an ethnographer who needs to write field notes or maybe a kid with spare change and amazing arcade skills. Otherwise, travelling to the North Coast can be especially taxing for someone who aches to be entertained. There are neither payphones nor cell-phone reception. No Titanic-like orchestra. No saltwater pool on the outer deck either. And there are no books or large screen movies good enough to compete with the humbling scenery of snowcapped peaks towering one after another in endless succession, an infinite wall of trees, the possibility of spotting bears, whales, or porpoises on either side of the channel, and the never-ending game of guessing how deep inland the next fjord can reach. By the time you reach port you’ve drunk a lot of coffee, eaten a lot of French fries and gravy, and met and spoken with everybody about everything, especially about the ferries, everyone’s favorite topic.

Few locations on the BC Coast serve as greater reminders than Powell River of the power of ferry boats. Tucked away from the rest of the mainland by steep mountains and deep channels, Powell River is not one but two ferry routes away from Vancouver. Indeed to get here it's just as fast to reach Vancouver Island first and then catch the ferry from Comox/Little River. Once in Powell River it becomes immediately clear that the place is a de facto island. Powell Riverites even have their own version of island time: Powell River time.

Saltspring Island is the most populated, the most politically-influential, the best-known, and the most developed of the islands served by BC Ferries (except for Vancouver Island). Three ports and three ferry routes connect it to other places: Vancouver Island (Crofton and Swartz Bay), Pender Island, Mayne Island, Galiano Island, and the mainland. Even though it is beautiful and charming, many islanders all over the coast and on the island too view Saltspring as an example of what the future can hold for them too unless they are vigilant against rampant development. The "Saltpsring index," a semi-serious measure of development, gauges how developed an island is in comparison to Saltspring. While its multiple ferry routes are obviously not the only cause of its development, they certainly play a role in it.

You gotta love Malcolm Island! It might very well be the place of harmony--since it was settled under that mantra by a proto-hippie commune of Finnish migrants early in the 20th century--but Sointulans are as feisty as it gets. They refused to be governed by Islands Trust to maintain their autonomy. They--some of them at least--have been fighting against an early morning ferry to Vancouver Island to avoid becoming dependent on a commuter economy. And they are known to bicker loudly with their neighbors on Alert Bay to get the ferry schedule the way they want it. And listen to them complain in style too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ7thblbcHo