A high-end mini-adventure cruise from Vancouver to Victoria in a new $3.5-million Prince of Whales vessel is expected to debut in May.
The purpose-built Salish Sea Dream is under construction in Port Angeles, Washington, said Alan McGillivray, owner of the company, billed as the “largest whale watching and eco-adventure company” in B.C.
Local shipbuilders were too busy with tugboat contracts for the build, he said.
The $315-round-trip “ultimate day tour” from Vancouver’s Westin Bayshore dock to Victoria Harbour, with a stop at Butchart Gardens, is expected to launch May 14.
The 24-metre Salish Dream Sea has 94 seats outdoors and the same number indoors, with huge windows and an all-weather enclosed cabin that is expected to extend the sailing season by about four weeks, until Oct. 10.
Cruises in the smaller Ocean Magic catamaran operated this year from May 23 to Sept. 20. The vessel can carry 74 passengers outdoors but only 60 inside and is not fully enclosed.
The Dream will go 30 knots an hour, about 10 per cent faster than the Ocean Magic, so more exploring can be done with a comfortable and smooth ride, McGillivray said.
The design was commissioned from Gregory C. Marshall Naval Architects of Victoria, with construction by Armstrong Marine Ltd. of Port Angeles.
So far as McGillivray knows, no Canadian operator on the West Coast has a high-speed catamaran “that’s doing what we’re doing.”
“The new vessel will be cutting-edge, with resistance curves and high fuel efficiency and built with customer safety as the foremost priority,” he said. “It will be a vessel built specifically for this journey and every element has been considered.”
The Salish Sea Dream will leave Vancouver’s Westin Bayshore dock at 8:30 a.m. and take one of four routes to Victoria, depending on sea conditions and access to wildlife. “It’s anything but a ferry route,” McGillivray said.
The Prince of Whales vessel will take four hours to arrive in Victoria, pulling in at 12:30 p.m.
Passengers can decide which time to hop on a Cruise Victoria bus to Butchart Gardens for a tour, then sail back to Vancouver from Tod Inlet at 4:45 p.m., heading up scenic Samsun Narrows and arriving in Vancouver Harbour at 7 p.m.
A one-way fare to Vancouver from the Inner Harbour that includes several hours of whale watching and then joining the passengers at Butchart’s dock costs about $150.
“It’s a 10-and-a-half-hour day,” McGillivray said. There’s enough time to slow down or stop the engines completely, depending on the wildlife, geological formations or First Nations sites, he said. The interpretive time, with the assistance of an on-board naturalist, will take up half the trip.
