Our penultimate day and an absolute highlight as we sail the Inside Passage – essentially the gap between Vancouver Island and the mainland, although in reality it stretches further north past Juneau to Skagway – so we have already been following the route for a few days.
The narrowest point is at Seymour Narrows which is close to the Ripple Rock lookout on Vancouver Island. However for much of the day there is land on both sides of us as we progress quite slowly. Shipping movements are closely controlled in the area as there are a lot of vessels plying their trade between Vancouver and the various Alaskan ports (some of which we have visited) – for most of them their only access is by sea, particularly the many islands in the area.
We stay on the observation deck as we traverse the Narrows noting some very nice residences on Vancouver Island – largely accessed by sea rather than road we suspect. However it is a little like the Norwegian Fjords – from a distance it looks impossible to navigate, close to there appears to be plenty of room. This is supported by Wikipedia which indicates that around 2m visitors travel this way each year with all major cruise liners able to pass this way.