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.
A small handful of people from Pender will likely email me after reading the book and viewing this website to complain. You see, there is no such thing as Pender Island. There is North Pender, and South Pender. They are two different islands. Historically they have been separate until a short bridge was put in place to link them. After that revolution in the mobility history of the two islands, "Pender" Island was born. Today, almost everyone refers to Pender Island as a whole, but a few sourtherners like to remind their northern neighbors that they are quite different. To me this works as a fantastic reminder of how much mobility matters in the formation of place.
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.
If you like to get a sense of Quadra Island before you reach it, upon boarding the ferry in Campbell River walk up to the passenger lounge and read the bulletin board. Bulletin boards contain precious signs of island life in small, often handwritten, characters and vivid colors. Need a ride to Victoria? New to the island and looking for a place to rent? In the mood for a spiritual retreat? Ready to re-do your patio or deck? Want to sell or buy photography, paintings, ceramics, stone jewelry? You'll find it all on the Powell River Queen's lively bulletin board--one of the best on the coast.
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.
Someone should invent a small-island version of GPS technology, one that is not based on street names and civic numbers, but rather on the address system used by locals. Forget 1356 Sunrise Street or 123 South Road; the small-island GPS would just need to know whose house you live in and what funky stuff there is at the end of your driveway. Take Ken's residence, on Saturna Island. Ken hasn’t lived at his house long enough for it to be known at "his house." A guy by the name of John Barber lived there for twenty-four years before Ken moved in. So, to all Saturna islanders Ken’s house is known as John Barber’s house. And "there is no civic number out front," Ken told me when he gave me directions, "just keep driving when you get off the ferry. Once you see the large blue heron made of driftwood by the roadside, turn right at the next driveway." There map that, GPS!
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
Stretching from its southern ferry terminal at Langdale, near Gibsons, to its northern ferry terminal at Earl's Cove past the Pender Harbour area, the Sunshine Coast faces Vancouver Island and Texada Island to the West, and the steep Coast Mountains to the east. This is not an island, but it doesn't quite feel like a mainland either. Ask any teenager how to get to the nearest mall hangout and they'll tell you that Park Royal Mall requires a trip on the Queen of Surrey, and a whole lot of parental permissions and patience.
"This is the strange thing about Texada," a resident of this hard-working island tells me, "we are the largest island in the Strait of Georgia. When you go from Vancouver to Nanaimo the ferry could literally make a course correction on the way to Vancouver Island and drop off Texadans at the southernmost tip of the island. But instead, Texadans chose the northernmost side of the island to build a ferry terminal. So, instead of getting there from West Vancouver in forty-five minutes we either take three ferries through the Sunshine Coast, or a ferry to Vancouver Island, one to Powell River, and one to Texada. Either route you take, it can take half a day or more."