“When anxious, anxious and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them with its loud sounds, cleanses me with its noise and imposes a rhythm on everything inside me that is confused and confused.” – Rainer Maria Rilke “I bet you never smelled a real school bus.” – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off The last BC Ferries from Port McNeill were late last night, which is a good thing. The Island K’ulut’a crew delayed their departure by one hour, until 10:30 pm, so that students from Alert Bay and Sointula could attend their high school holidays. This is the issue with ships serving small communities floating off Vancouver Island. Ferries may look romantic or exotic to star-studded tourists looking at the beautiful postcard gliding landscape, but for many children it is just the school bus. In this case, a school bus staffed by neighbors who recognize that grad night is important. Deckhand James Glendale knows. He spent 32 years on the road, transferring students to North Island Secondary School, the same institution he graduated from in 1989. “You see them when they first enter 8th grade – they look scared, not knowing what they are getting into. And every year, they seem to mature a little more. “ Children, crew and adults move around familiarly. “We all know them, say hello in the morning,” said Brooklynn Watson of Sointula, one of 18 NISS students taking the ship from Malcolm Island every day. The Island K’ulut’a program means that about 70 students from Alert Bay, on the island of Cormorant, usually make the 45-minute walk to Port McNeill on foot. They are far from being the only high school students moving on the water. Gabriola’s children take the ship to Nanaimo, the Quadra Islanders to the Campbell River and a handful of drops from the Denman Island boat en route to Courtenay. Sea taxis transport students from the Gulf outlying islands to the high school in Salt Spring. (A boat pilot once told me that he was amazed at the ability of teenage girls to do black makeup and a three-legged swelling.) Sometimes the movement is excessive, forcing families to make difficult decisions. Teenagers from outposts like Surge Narrows or Cortes Island or Lasqueti often board for high school. Or sometimes their families just bet. Keeping communities viable for families is a big deal on the coast. Without an elementary school, and without relatively easy access to high school, good luck attracts anyone other than retirees. That’s why important gestures like the traditional grad-night delay of BC Ferries for those traveling from Port McNeill. However, transportation to school is still a challenge, as dozens of NISS graduates from Sointula and Alert Bay can confirm this year. Take Watson. For the past five years the 17-year-old has been waking up at 6am, leaving the door for the Malcolm Island school bus at 7:30, aboard the ferry at 7:55 and Port McNeill half an hour later. for classes starting at 8:46 p.m. At least the new Island-class ferry is more reliable than the one it replaced, he says. If he is late, he has the ability to speed up and get back on schedule. The older, smaller ship did not. “When he was left behind, he was back all day.” However, living at the pace of a ferry every three hours can be uncomfortable. Going to football training, work, or anything else means either getting to Port McNeill early or showing up late. Then you have to walk around waiting for the next boat to take you home. “It’s not that it prevents us from doing things. “It just makes for a really tiring day,” says Watson. Classmate Gisele Alfred, 18, of Alert Bay says the same thing. “In winter, you leave in the dark and return home in the dark.” It was particularly difficult when pandemic rules required students to stay isolated in cohorts, which meant the sidewalk had to make two trips, which meant it had to set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. and arrive in Port McNeill 1 hour before the start of classes. Winter can also mean bad weather, which Alfred says she really likes, although sometimes the winds are so strong that ferries can not work. Keeping an eye on marine forecasts, children often stay home instead of risking being trapped on the other side, although this is still the case. “We’re all very familiar with being stuck in Port McNeill,” says Watson. He remembers having dinner at Mr. Noodles after the school opened its vending machines. NISS maintains sleeping bags and sleeping bags for emergencies. The point is, both Watson and Alfred love the place where they live in close-knit, supportive communities. The ship did not prevent Watson from living a busy life, volunteering at the pharmacy and veterinary clinic in Port McNeill and as a junior firefighter and school in Sointula, a place that sounds like Paradise. “Definitely worth it,” he says of the daily commute. Alfred talks about the ship’s life lessons – he teaches you time management and organization, because there is no going back for what you forgot at home. And then there is the journey itself. Watching rafting otters ride the waves or have whales so close to the surface that you can hear them exhale never gets old. “It’s still a magical experience,” says Alfred. He will go to McGill University in Montreal in the fall, while Watson will head to BC University in Vancouver, giving them a taste of city life. Neither of them makes the prospect sound more appealing than living in a place where your neighbors are watching over you, delaying the ship so you can get to the grad.
