What is it about the thrill of a ferry ride?

Is it the long blast to signal the launch of the voyage?

Is it the ocean depths, where whales sail alongside as if taunting us

Come play if you dare?

Is it the anticipation of sharing a destination with a group of strangers?

Where do you come from? Where are you going? Will you return?

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I love to watch the variety of vessels as the waves carry them; fishing, sailing, celebrating, coasting.

The lighthouses that dot the shore, the white caps and the sea planes that zoom overhead carrying their cargo to places beyond.

What it must have been to be a lighthouse keeper in days gone by where the sea was a tempestuous beast and your light literally meant life or death to many brave seamen.

Why is the ferry captain always a gentleman, with gray hair and white beard, a jovial Sir Richard Attenborough?

I have taken ferries of all sizes in many places and I never lose the excitement and the anticipation of the voyage, however short. I once took a ferry in Cape Breton that was less than 60 seconds long, and held only 3 cars.

It was no less enchanting than a 4 hour ferry ride in Greece.

As I watch out the window of this ferry that will take me to Vancouver island, I watch those who live upon the shores and imagine how they live knowing their connection relies on the arrival and departures of these great boats; how they must have established a comfort level with coming and going; of leaving and staying and how the ferry must signal the flux in business and vacationers that want to explore their shores.

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“Ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do.”
“If you’ve a penny in your purse
I’ll ferry you.”

“I have a penny in my purse,
And my eyes are blue;
So ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do.”

“Step into my ferry-boat,
Be they black or blue,
And for the penny in your purse
I’ll ferry you.”

Tomorrow as the sun sets on the ocean, I will sail once gain, back home to the mainland, where I will await my next ferry adventure.