One last night at the dock

This morning we moved the rest of the way north into Prince Rupert.  I’ve heard about the Prince Rupert grain terminals for as long as I can remember so it was pretty cool to cruise past them today.  And you literally go right by them.  The channel is so narrow as you go by the terminal that it felt like we were under the spout.  There was a coal ship just finishing up loading at Ridley and a grain ship that was just starting to load at the grain terminal.  We could see the grain dust flying from 3 or 4 miles away so we knew they were loading long before we got close enough to really see anything.

The container terminal was pretty impressive too.  There were no ships loading there but they were lining containers up like they were getting ready to load something.  There’s ocean going vessels parked all over the place up here too – thank you very much CN & CP for not getting the grain in position. 

Tonight we’re tied up to the inside of the breakwater at Prince Rupert Rowing and Yacht Club.  They’re very pleasant but a little bit overly proud of their facility so we’ll only spend one night enjoying their $71 per night hospitality.  We made a quick grocery run to replenish a bit of fresh fruit but we didn’t want to get carried away because we like to cross the US border with as little in the fridge as possible.  Tomorrow afternoon we’ll move a little closer to the US border to an anchorage on Dundas Island.  Assuming the weather forecast stays good, we’ll make the crossing at Dixon Entrance on Thursday.

I found a chandler here and bought some guidebooks for Alaska.  I don’t know what I was thinking coming this far on an Alaskan adventure without any guidebooks to tell us where to go.  It worked out well though because there was a bookstore on main street going out of business and they had one of the Hemingway – Douglass guides on half price.  They’re normally $70 so half price is good.  I had to pay full price for the 2nd one at the Chandlery but I’d have paid full price for 2 books if I hadn’t found the discounted one at the bookstore.  I think I’ll walk back up there in the morning and check out her used books.