Great adventures in little vessels
Just a few decades ago, I spent my summers sailing the coastal waters of British Columbia. More than anything else, it was those summers that piqued my interest in cruising.
While those big boats were following the Inside Passage north from Vancouver to Alaska, I was just a speck floating on bays and inlets up the coast — just a drop in the ocean — and never making it to Alaska, yet experiencing the adventures found along the shore.
Those were the days when boaters rafted their crafts together, with fresh seafood cooking for lunch or dinner on each boat. When a boater discovered a hiking trail, fishing holes or crab beds everybody knew about it. Killer whales abounded in the area, and you simply shut off your engine and floated among them.
These experiences can’t be repeated on today’s large ships, of course, but you can come close to those experiences on smaller boats that carry anywhere from 10 to 210 passengers.
While some of them don’t cruise in the wilderness, they still offer itineraries only a small boat can offer because they fit the narrow waterways. Managers of these boats have innovative routes and a leisurely pace to explore the nooks of seaside villages, and you can enjoy the intimacy you won’t find on big cruise ships.
So this week’s subject is the small-boat line, four of them that feature those unique elements: Blount Small Ship Adventures, Un-Cruises, Pearl Seas Cruises and Maple Leaf Adventures.
Blount is an innovative company that for 2015 has added three new one-of-a-kind cruises along the Atlantic coast on their two Grand ships. The Blount ships have retractable pilot houses, bow ramps and a shallow draft that allows its ships to sail in less than seven feet of water so inland rivers and bays are easily accessible. There’s no need to tie up to a dock.
Canada and the Northeastern U.S. offers up a trip from Saint John to Portland, Maine. You’ll sail from Saint John Harbour to the Bay of Fundy and on to waterways unfamiliar to most — Annapolis Basin, Passamaquoddy Bay, Gulf of Maine, Frenchman Bay, Penobscot Bay, Rockland Harbor, Kennebec River and Casco Bay.
Readers regularly email me about sailing the Great Lakes. Premium cruise line Pearl Seas Cruises can accommodate you next summer. The 210-passenger ship (Pearl Mist) will sail from Toronto to Chicago with port calls in Niagara Falls, Parry Sound and Midland, and you can step back in time while visiting Mackinac Island and other ports on the Great Lakes.
The other two lines — Maple Leaf and Un-Cruises — based on the West Coast offer even more in the way of small-ship adventure.
Maple Leaf was a one-sailboat operation but has added a second boat to the fleet, the Swell, which carries just 10 passengers. A 27-metre (88-foot) classic wooden tugboat, the Swell has been restored to offer boutique expedition cruises along the B.C. and Alaska coast. With so few passengers, you should know the crew and everyone else by the first night’s dinner. These ships sail a multitude of cruises in these coastal waters, stopping when wildlife presents itself.
The Un-Cruise fleet numbers eight boats that sail from Alaska to the Hawaiian Islands, the Sea of Cortez and the Columbia and Snake rivers.
While the boats in the West are on a schedule, Mother Nature dictates there schedule from time to time — after all this is adventure cruising
$6,100 for nine days with Maple Leaf in Haida Gwaii, B.C. See Mapleleafadventures.com.
$5,885 for 11 days with Pearl Mist on the Great Lakes. See Pearlseacruises.com.
$3,395 for seven days with Un- Cruises on the Sea of Cortez, between the Baja California peninsula and Mexican mainland. See Un-cruise.com.
$4,499 for 11 days with Blount in the northeast. See Blountsmallshipadvenures.com.