Klewnuggit to Prince Rupert

Another early morning start today. We were up at 6:00 am so that we would be sure to arrive in Prince Rupert by noon. When I emerged from the crew quarters the anchorage that we had stayed in the night before was empty except for our boat and thick, thick fog. A good portion of the cruise was traveled in deep fog, but with all the great navigational aides that the Captain and First Mate have on board, they were able to find the way very easily.

Thankfully, the seas were very calm. We pulled into Prince Rupert at about 12:00. That’s when I got to work. I had about 10 people signed up to go on a trip to a bear sanctuary. I got them collected and set them off to an airport to catch a floatplane out to the area. I had another group going to tour an old fishing cannery. I gathered them and sent them by van to the cannery. After that, I headed up to find the restaurant where we would be having our dinner that night. It was a good walk, 15 or 20 minutes. On the way back, I stopped in at the grocery store and found Chef shopping for supplies for the boat. I stayed with her to help carry the groceries. Prince Rupert is a good size city, about 13,000 people, so there were great facilities for re-supplying. Chef pointed out that it was the first time in nearly two weeks that we had seen a car.

After we got the supplies loaded and stowed on the boat, we headed out to find internet connection. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were thrilled when we found a coffee shop. At the coffee shop, they told us that the bar across the street had internet access, so we headed that way. Turns out it wasn’t working, so we moved down the road to a big hotel on the hill. We were able to sit there in the bar and work on our blogs until about 6:30. Then we had to hustle back to the marina to collect our people for dinner.

Dinner was great. We went to Restaurant Rain. The restaurant was started by a young couple that had grown up in Prince Rupert but had worked for years in Vancouver restaurants. They had just come home within the last few years and opened a “big city restaurant” in Prince Rupert. Their menu is made up of “small plates”. Throughout the night, they kept the wine flowing and small plate after small plate supplied on the tables. The participants seemed to love the dinner and the free flowing wine certainly helped keep their spirits high.

Because of the early morning starts, our participants tend to go to bed very early. By about 9:00, most had left the restaurant. The staff got together at one of the tables and finished off the last of the open bottles of wine. As the time passed, the restaurant actually got busier and busier. The music started getting louder and the patrons younger. We laughed because at one point in the night, we were some of the youngest people in the room. Later, we were some of the oldest. It was actually great fun and we felt like we were in some big city restaurant. We enjoyed watching friends come into the restaurant and meet each other.

Prince Rupert doesn’t have a reputation as one of the jewels of the Inside Passage, but for us, it turned out to be an incredible city. The warm sunny day, the well-stocked grocery stores, a great restaurant and an incredible time spent with people very dear to me.