The time is currently 7:55 AM. I am seated in Economy on the Clipper ferry from Seattle, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia. I wanted to charge my phone and get some sleep on the ferry, as I stayed up all night to make sure I would make it to this ferry on time. Unforunately, there is no power so I cannot charge my phone which is currently at 61% charge. The seat is also probably not one that I can get a good nap in, as the back is not tall enough. So, to try to occupy my time, I'm keeping this journal of thoughts.
Boarding to Victoria
I arrived at the ferry terminal at about 7:10 AM, where I found a twenty minute line to check in. I didn't feel too cold since I decided to wear a heavier jacket. Check in was pretty easy; I handed my passport over and I received a boarding pass printed on orange paper. I sat in the boarding area for about five minutes before my row was called for boarding; boarding had already started at around 7:15 AM.
I lined up to board and a staff member scanned by boarding pass' QR code, with no ID check required. My seat was pretty much right at the entrance so I was able to get seated pretty quickly. It's Thanksgiving today so there are a lot of tourists headed to Victoria for the day or weekend so the ferry was pretty full but somehow, I was able to get a group of seats all to myself!
It is now 9:00 PM and I'm in the Ocean Island Inn. It turns out that I was in fact able to nap during the ferry ride so the entry above is all I got to write.
Onboard Experience to Victoria
The first thing the crew does when the ship leaves is give a safety briefing. After that, the galleys open for service. I was hungry so I lined up for some food. There's not really any good space to line up so you end up just lining up into the aisle between seats, which I guess would be awkward for the people sitting near the aisle. I think this was only a problem right at the start of the trip though.
While waiting in line, the ship suddenly slowed down and honked a couple times. A crewmember came on the PA to tell us that we slowed down because of a whale sighting! I was able to see the tail of the whale but no more. A bunch of people got up from their seats on the other side of the ship to come to the side where the whales were spotted but I don't think we saw any more whales.
After a ten minute wait, I got to the front of the line. I ordered a banana loaf (sourced from Alki Bakery) and a decaf coffee (from their espresso machine). I tried to tip to the nearest dollar but I couldn't figure out how to tip only seventy-three cents instead of seventy-three dollays so I gave up and gave no tip. Sorry galley employee!
I brought my food to my seat, ate the banana loaf, drank half of the decaf and then I fell asleep. I woke up when we were about thirty minutes away from Victoria.
As a final note about the ferry, for some reason I expected power outlets to be available to charge my phone but there weren't. There was a USB hub located near the galley that passengers might have been able to use for phone charging but the location wasn't particular secure and it would have been awkward to stand around there, so I didn't use it.
Offboarding Experience
The crew seperate the passengers into two groups for offboarding: those without checked baggage and those with checked baggage. Passengers without checked baggage offboard first since they can get inspected by CBSA first. Those with checked baggage are allowed to offboard once the FRS Clipper staff get all the checked baggage ready for them.
As mentioned earlier, since my seat was at the entrance, I was able to get off pretty quickly. I cleared immigration and customs pretty quickly, and was able to start my trip.
Well, this is an unexpected sequel. I was supposed to fly back to Seattle by seaplane but I guess the cloud cover was too low either in Seattle or Victoria to operate the seaplane safely so the airline cancelled the flight. I'm glad they gave sufficient notice, as I was able to cancel my flight, get a refund and then book the Victoria Clipper back to Seattle.
Boarding to Seattle
I arrived at the terminal fairly early since I had nothing to do. I was supposed to already have left Victoria and had nothing else planned to do. Unlike in Seattle, the staff didn't check my passport; they just asked me for my name and handed me a boarding pass. I guess they don't need to check passports since CBP immigration is done in the Victoria ferry terminal.
At some point, one of the staff members went outside and instructed incoming passengers to wait outside unless they had baggage to check. They probably do this to control crowding in the terminal because I don't think everyone could have fit inside.
At 3:45 PM, the CBP checkpoint opened. I ended up near the end of the line of whose who were seated inside the terminal. I stood in line for 20 minutes before I got to an officer and cleared customs.
Onboard Experience to Seattle
Once past CBP, there is a boarding area with a bunch of seats. The seats weren't really needed since they were already boarding all seating groups. I guess with a slow trickle of people, you don't really need boarding groups. Since I booked the Clipper with short notice, they had no more Economy seats so I had to pay extra for a Vista seat. I guess the Vista seat does have more legroom than Economy seats but I can't say that I would have chosen Vista for this trip since the sun was set for most of the journey, hiding any vistas that we might have enjoyed.
I spent most of the time in the terminal and on the ferry playing Sudoku on sudoku.com and listening to Rent. My phone died at around 6:00 PM so I pulled out my laptop and started writing this sequel entry.