Many of the British Columbia lighthouses, manned and unmanned, are along BC’s world-famous Inside Passage.
Today I came across a new story on the Internet about this fabulous trip and it is onboard the new BC Ferries vessel vessel MV Northern Expedition (aka NorEx).
MV Northern Expedition
The article is called Cruising the Inside Passage from explore BC. Continue reading Cruising the Inside Passage
The idea for this story came from an article in the Vancouver Sun newspaper. I asked for permission to reprint it here for all to see, and they said I would have to pay them. This was an article about the Inside Passage ferry trip with mention of a couple of lighthouses – very few actually. I am not even going to mention the title of the story – how can they turn down free advertising. 😉
When you visit Canada do you plan on seeing some lighthouses? We have twenty-seven (27) manned lighthouses on the west coast of British Columbia (BC); Canada. There are other unmanned lighthouses that are available for viewing also. You can see some of them if you wish with the BC Ferries, plus enjoy wonderful trips through BC waters.
The Inside Passage
Let us start with the longest trip first. How about fifteen (15) hours on a luxurious ferry in daylight so that you can make many photos. Fifteen hours may seem like a long time, but there is so much to see that time flies by, especially if the weather is fine.
There are two ferries on the route (2013) – the Northern Expedition and the Northern Adventure. You can actually follow them live on this website.
Continue reading Inside Passage Ferry Trip to Visit Some of the Lighthouses
The Lightkeeper – many years ago he had no contact with anyone – now the whole world can communicate with him and through him!
Around 2004 the Canadian government decided to limit the weather report information put out by the lighthouse keepers to a very restricted set of criteria.
Wind detecting devices (anemometers) were removed, pressure detecting devices (barometers) were removed and devices for measuring cloud height (ceilometers) were also removed. Basic weather training was kept to a minimum. The lightkeeper was left to his own devices to observe and report the weather every three hours to his designated Coast Guard radio station.
No one was interested or affected . . . except those that used the weather reports! – the aircraft pilots, cruise ships, fishing boats, recreational boaters, and others that travelled the wind-swept and storm-lashed west coast of British Columbia. This coast is over 7,000 kilometres long from Vancouver, BC to Alaska, USA if you follow all its indentations, and sometimes these indentations are a life-saver when a storm blows up. (see the article Why We Need MORE Lighthouses . . .) Continue reading Weather Reporting at Boat Bluff c. 2004