Today we have to get up very early and leave around 5am, as we have to take the ferry for the Inside Passage. This trip costs 600 CAD for the four of us and an additional 350 CAD for the car. Fortunately we bought the tickets in advance, when we booked the trip. It is only about a six minutes drive and we are well in time and it is still very quiet. Luckily for us we are not here during the tourist season as this must be very busy by then. We check in around 5.30 am and the boat leaves at 7am. Once we parked our car on the ferry we go upstairs and install ourselves in nice comfortable sofas with view on the water. This trip will take about 14 hours. LuSo is going for a nice big breakfast and we have a sandwich at our seats and enjoy the view. During the trip we take turns to go on deck and enjoy the views, which only clears up around noon as in the morning it is foggy. Yes… by 12.30pm we see our first whale jumping out of the water! Humpback whales, which are impressively large but rather far away! Even with a 400mm lens it is still quite far. They are difficult to see (despite the fact that the captain is announcing it each time he spots a whale), most of the time you see the tail but these are nice pictures. Then we see something in the water… it’s a deer that is crossing the channel which is about 1600m! Amazing! The captain also spotted the deer and slows down in order not to pull it down. About two hours later we see another whale that gives us a nice tail-picture. About half an hour later we see some otters floating in the water and enjoying the nice weather. When Patrick is checking the rocks with his 400mm lens he suddenly spots a group of sea lions enjoying the sun. He looks around him but nobody else saw them. We make some nice pictures of the Dryad Point Lighthouse at Bella-Bella. As the next day Luso celebrates their wedding anniversary the two of us go to the shop on the ferry to look for a small present. We start talking with the shop assistant who is very friendly and we tell them about the wedding anniversary and she is charmed by this story. In the evening we have a nice dinner on the ferry with a buffet and it is very quiet. We enjoy the beautiful sunset on the sea. During the dinner a steward walks to our table and surprises Luso with a small present for their anniversary. It is very nice to see that those people are so considerate! Around 10.43pm we arrive and leave the ferry, 10 minutes later we arrive at our hotel, the Quarterdeck Inn. There is a small problem as they have a booking for one room and one night, which should have been two rooms for two nights, but they arrange it immediately as there are more rooms available. A bit after midnight we are finally in our bed and the next day it is again an early wake-up call!

Daytrip approx. 520 km