The Victoria-bound Spirit of Vancouver Island lets out a droning blast of its horn and turns hard to port. The ferry's decks shudder as the engines churn to get her around a tight bend in the channel. Then comes the echoes of another sonorous horn and the Vancouver-bound Spirit of British Columbia steams into view.
The ferries pass each other in the midst of the southern Gulf Islands, between the west coast of the Canadian mainland and Vancouver Island. Far below the top decks, in the green waters of the channel, sea otters pop through the surface to watch the ships sail by. Behind them rises the green mass of Galiano Island, the shade of its forest broken only where the pitch of the rocky hills becomes too extreme for trees to take root.
Victoria, the largest city on Vancouver Island and the most robust relic of Canada's British past, seems a world away from the mainland, whether you are in the city itself or thinking about it from downtown Vancouver. In reality, it is a 11/2-hour ferry ride away and, unlike the smoggy, claustrophobic trips between Hong Kong and Macau, the voyage provides half the excitement on a day trip to the provincial capital.
Ferries, leaving from Tsawwassen or Horseshoe Bay, cross the open expanse of the Strait of Georgia before winding their way through the Gulf Islands. From the Swartz Bay terminal, it's a short drive into the heart of Victoria.
Once in the city - one of Canada's urban gems - you're better off walking than driving. The central bus terminal is downtown and a short stroll from the Inner Harbour, where seaplanes glide in to splash down a short distance from the city centre. The harbour, encircled by a grassy bank and promenade, is flanked on one side by the Parliament Buildings and on the other by the Empress Hotel. It is these buildings, with their sprawling lawns and the rest of the city's turn-of-the-century architecture that recall the city's British past.
Captain James Cook became the first European to set foot on the mainland, in 1778, but it wasn't until 1843 that the Hudson's Bay Company, which dealt in fur, began to build Fort Victoria as a trading post. Victoria became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation, in 1871.