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Soaking up the sweet salt air.
“Why did you decide to take this trip?” Responses are many: word of mouth, friends recommended it, one couple’s son works on a fish farm where the Aurora delivers. “I didn’t want the crowded, busy, artificial atmosphere of a regular cruise with its organized fun,” says a woman from Victoria. “This is peaceful and you get to places no cruise ship can go.”
Outside, mist hangs low over the mercury sea. Tugboats tow enormous log booms, fishing boats hunt prawns or crab. This is indeed the working coast—no cruise ships or Sunday sailboats here. Already you’ve settled into the ship’s routine of deliveries , running between stops, waiting for tides to turn. At one lumber camp, there’s time for a shore walk, so you bundle into rain gear and go for a stroll.There is no hurry, none at all.
Over the next two days, the Aurora cruises scenic Bute Inlet. With improving weather, Menetrier takes time for photo stops and shore walks, including an excursion to see the ruins of an old logging camp, complete with donkey engine and moss-crusted cabins slowly collapsing into the forest. You pass lovely Aurora Falls; you see glossy black bears foraging on the beaches, bald eagles wheeling through the treetops, seals bobbing in the water. As the ship plows up the ever-narrowing inlet, the water changes from clear emerald to milky jade, testament to the glaciers that feed the inlet’s upper reaches with silt-laden melt water.
A true fjord, Bute Inlet attains depths down to 1,500 feet. Trees in every shade of green cling to the steep slopes above the waterline. At the inlet’s head, you are deep into the Coast Mountains, surrounded by 9,000-foot peaks. High above is the Homathko Glacier, an enormous cake of ice with huge frontal cracks that show aqua blue in their recesses.The ice age feels near at hand in this elemental landscape.
Morning dawns perfectly clear. The Aurora’s engines roar into action and she makes her way back down the channel. Another stop, where nobody meets the boat to claim the delivered machinery. “There’s a lot of trust involved in this business,” says Menetrier. “It’s our job to deliver freight or supplies in good condition. If we do a poor job, word gets around. You’d be amazed how news spreads to such isolated places.”
The only remaining cargo is a “build your own house” kit, to be off-loaded at a tiny settlement on Read Island.The dock is flimsy and minuscule but there’s just enough room for the Aurora’s ramp. Then Stockand goes to work with the ship’s forklift, piloting load after load onto the beach and up a muddy road while friends and neighbors from the community carry bales of insulation and loads of shingles. Passengers oversee the action from the wheelhouse. Night falls, so does more rain, and still the Aurora’s crew labors on until the job is done and the deck is clear.
All hands turn in. Tomorrow, you’re bound for home port.