On island time….

I’m sure most of us have talked at one time or another about getting away from it all and living on some remote island.

Laurie and I have….

I’m sure most of us have talked at one time or another about getting away from it all and living on some remote island.

Laurie and I have. Victoria has been high on our lists of potential retirement towns for years, but even though it’s on Vancouver Island, because of the size and the ferry system, I’m not sure it counts. But around Vancouver Island, and up the Sunshine Coast, are many smaller islands that people also live on. you also have the San Juan islands in the area as well.

Getting away from it all is the fantasy — but what if you need to get back? What’s it really like living on the wrong end of a part time ferry line?

Canadian author Hilary Stewart did that. When she retired she moved to Cortes Island, and then wrote a book about what it meant to live out there. That book On Island Time” is a fascinating read in and of itself, but anyone who’s thought about doing this really ought to track it down.

I first discovered Stewart when I started researching Pacific Northwest native culture. She’s the author of many books on my shelves about those people and their art (one of these days, I plan on getting to talking about that stuff, too. honest). Cortes island is a small island accessible by ferry from Campbell River, about a four hour drive north of Victoria. To get to it, you take a ferry to Quadra Island, drive across the island, and then take a second ferry out to Cortes. The Quadra island ferry runs from 6AM to midnight, about once an hour. The quadra to cortes run goes about every two hours, from 9AM to 6PM.

That’s the first reality of island time: if you’re late, it leaves. If it’s full, you wait for the next one. If it’s the last one, they’ll see you in the morning. Unlike bridges and freeways, you work your schedule around the ferry. At busy times, you show up early to get a place, and wait (some ferries have some reservations).

Not everyone can handle island time. I love it. To me, a ferry is a way to unplug from my day to day reality — it’s a realization that I can’t just point the car south if my work calls with an emergency. The ferry is, psychologically, a way to force myself to give up control of my schedule to someone else. that’s one reason I so love to vacation in Victoria (moreso than Vancouver, or Seattle or Portland, much as I love all of the northwest) — once I get on that ferry, I can leave the rest behind (even though my hotel room has cat 5 hookups in it!).

Laurie can sometimes get frustrated by the waits, especially peak times where we might run into having to wait for a second sailing at Tswassen or Horseshoe Bay (in practice, I don’t think we ever have). Me, I just pull out a book or the paper and relax; most of the time she does, too — but once in a while, the process bothers her. My parents are driven crazy by ferries, because it’s out of their control.

And it gets worse. Sometimes there are accidents. Sometimes there are delays. Sometimes the ferry simply is shut down, by strikes once in a while, or by extreme tides, and more commonly, by weather. I admit to being a bit of a ferry geek (and it’s all Jack Chalker’s fault. long story, some other time). If I have the opportunity to take a ferry I haven’t taken before, I’ll try it.

Most of the time. A while back we took a November trip north, flying into Seattle and then renting a car. We decided to do some exploring, so we scheduled some time in Campbell River. Our original plan was to head north up the sunshine coast (the coastal side of the vancouver mainland) via the Earl’s Cove to Saltery Bay ferry, up to Port rupert, and take that ferry across to Comox. At the last minute, because we were running late and the weather wasn’t great (it was November, after all, and frankly, the weather wasn’t bad, just not good enough to warrant sightseeing new territory) we bailed and took twassen to nanaimo and drove up the island.

And it wasn’t until we got to Campbell River we found that the Port Rupert ferry was shut down by a strike. see, the plumbing on the ferry had failed, and, well, the crew had been trying to get it repaired, and finally got tired of the smell.

Just as well. I like ferries. Just not without limits. We still plan on doing that trip, just not in November. Better to explore new territory some other time of the year.

Another aspect of island time is access to amenities. When you’re two hours from the mainland, and you might find your connection shut down for a few days at a time by weather, don’t run out of toilet paper. Planning ahead isn’t just a good idea, it’s absolutely crucial.

My family has a cabin in Washington, in an area known as Paradise Bay. To get their, you cross the Hood Canal Bridge, drive a bit, then hang a right, and keep driving. Officially, it’s considered Port Ludlow, but that’s the post office, not the reality. The nearest supermarket is about 10 miles in Poulsbo. the nearest serious shopping is down in Silverdale, about a 25 mile drive. The nearest gas station is 6 miles.

In other words, you can’t just pop down to McDonalds when you don’t feel like cooking (the nearest McDonalds is near the supermarket). Except for those rare times the Hood Canal bridge is closed (really, really bad weather can do it), at least we have access. On an island? once that ferry turns off the engine, it’s over. Don’t need a prescription filled until morning.

And that’s where I join Laurie in realizing island time isn’t for me. The isolation that comes with being on that island just isn’t something we feel we can do long-term. We both like some amenities — god help me if I can’t get to a bookstore easily, for instance. Being 10 miles from Poulsbo is okay. Being on Vancouver island is okay. But neither of us feels a great attraction to heading that much farther into the wilderness. Except to visit for a while…

Which is one of the things that keeps drawing us back to Victoria. It’s easily accessible, but still, because of the ferries, somewhat isolated. It’s small, but has enough of interest to keep things fun. And it’s a great base camp for all sorts of adventures, but still developed enough that the hotel has internet installed… heck, we want to get away from it all, but we still appreciate civilization, too…

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