A VOYAGE INTO CANADIAN HISTORY:
THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS
Story and photography
by Eric Anderson & Nancy Allen

To all this Burke (who has crossed the Atlantic three times and the Pacific once) says: “I feel I am in good hands!”

Actually we’re all in good hands. His boat has state of the art navigation equipment and redundant systems including twin 165 hp diesels. On board he has an able staff: Kitty Lloyd, a naturalist with a degree in marine biology now in her 10 th season with the company, Kate Riddell, with a degree in history in her 8 th season of serving cordon bleu meals from a 7 by 9 foot galley, and Steve, “the third mate,” with a diploma in outdoor recreation, who seems always there with a helping hand when passengers stumble on shore.

Ahead of all for the next ten days is what Burke calls the “best coastline in the entire world.” It is, however, a remote desolate world of fog, rain and wind -- and 24-foot tides, in other words, a sailor’s paradise. It is also a naturalist’s dream. On this cruise Kitty will identify 55 species of land and bog plants such as Newcombe’s butterweed and Lyngby’s sedge, 12 sea plants from Laminaria to sea lettuce and 35 invertebrates from a hooded nudibranch to some moon jelly; she will document sightings of 25 species of birds including bald eagle and tufted puffin and point out 13 mammals including black bear and orca whales.



Passengers will kayak and swim in natural hot springs with water temperatures in excess of 100 degrees F. Two both aged in their 70s will swim afterwords in the cold, cold sea and one, subsequently, will get hoisted 80 feet up the main mast for a special photograph. Passengers clad in oilskins and rubber boots will glide to shore in inflatable Zodiaks and comb beaches and some of the world’s best inter-tidelands for 12 inch-long sea cucumbers and giant starfish. They will explore abandoned copper mines and former whaling stations and hike to high ground to see vistas of a land of yesterday forgotten by the people of today.