B.C. By Boat: A Scenic Treat Of Inlets, Waterfalls

The best part of British Columbia is all wet. And that's good.

It's something like 600 miles in a straight line from Victoria, the southernmost point in the province, to the Alaska border just beyond Prince Rupert to the north.

In between, counting every island, every quiet bay and the steep walled inlets with waterfalls splashing into the sea, British Columbia has 17,780 miles of saltwater shoreline - all of it worth exploration.

Much of it is beyond the reach of highways. It takes a boat to get there.

Over more than 20 years of cruising British Columbia waters, we have seen much, but far from all, the scenic coastline offers.

Probably the most popular - and most accessible - coastlines for visiting Puget Sound-area boaters are the Gulf Islands off the southeast corner of Vancouver Island and just north of Washington's San Juan Islands.

The Gulf Islands offers numerous ports with docks and shoreside activities as well as lonely harbors for quiet anchoring. The islands are home to thriving artists' colonies and seaport communities that welcome cruising families.

Here are some favorite British Columbia coastal spots mentioned often in our cruising log.

Princess Louisa Inlet

This area is a blue squiggle on a B.C. highway map, about 80 miles northeast of Vancouver at the end of 30-mile-long Jervis Inlet.

Every cruising season hundreds of pleasure boats motor up the inlet and accept the challenge of passing through Malibu rapids to reach a nearly land-locked harbor as dramatic as an old English cathedral and, at the very end, the boisterous and beautiful Chatterbox Falls.

Many boaters tie to a float provided by B.C. Parks (with the financial aid of U.S. and Canadian boaters) while others drop anchor in shallow water directly below the falls. At times, mountain goats graze on the near vertical rock face above the anchorage.

The hills are so steep and so tall that marine radios and cell phones often won't work. The nearest road probably is 50 miles away, over impassable mountains and valleys.

Village Island

Go north another 150 miles, to the point where Knight Inlet flows into Queen Charlotte Strait, to find a quiet and remote anchorage behind Village Island.

Navigation skills are needed to wind through rock sentinels in the water outside Village anchorage, but once safely past the purple hills rise above calm waters.

Nearby is the almost legendary site of Mamalilaculla, an abandoned First Nation (Indian) community. The totems have fallen and the buildings (including a hospital) are settling into the grass.

For years, visitors wandered freely photographing the totems and picking raspberries that have endured and spread since the last residents left. They also watched carefully for black bears.

Now, the Indian community has assumed control of the site and conducts guided tours. On our last visit, Indian youth visited our anchored boat to invite us ashore. As a gesture of friendship, they gave us several large Dungeness crabs.

Princess Royal Reach, Grenville Channel

Continue up the coast, along the Inside Passage made famous a century ago when steamers carried gold miners north, past Bella Bella to Princess Royal Reach and Grenville Channel. They are narrow and spectacular waterways leading to Prince Rupert. In early summer streams from high snowfields plunge down vertical rock walls to crash into the sea.

The water is so deep beneath the keel and the walls so steep that boats can come close to shore and let the tumbling water rinse away salt accumulated in rougher waters.

Most consider the best way to explore the waters of British Columbia would be aboard one's own boat. A sound vessel and a skipper with good boat handling and navigating skills are needed.

But that's not the only way.

Those who don't own a boat, but who have seamanship abilities, can charter a boat either from brokers or private parties. Expect to pay between $1,400 and $6,000 (or more) per week for a bare boat. You provide the food and crew and buy the fuel.

Charter prices are based on the size of a boat, its age, the equipment and features it offers. A 33-foot boat hired off season might be available for $1,400. Charter a luxurious 52-foot Grand Banks yacht in July or August and be prepared to spend $8,000 a week.

Inexperienced cruisers can arrange to hire a Coast Guard licensed skipper to take charge of the boat, and to give lessons, too. He or she will cost $175 - $200 a day, plus food and a place to sleep.

Many who charter from firms in Anacortes and Bellingham usually go cruising for one or two weeks, and limit their travel to the Gulf Islands. Others may go to Princess Louisa Inlet and the warm, swimmable waters of Desolation Sound another day to the north.

Longer charters allow exploring the area around Alert Bay, famous for a native cultural center and its collection of Indian masks and for killer whales that swim nearby, or for a challenging circumnavigation of Vancouver Island.

Port McNeill, near the tip of the island on the east side, is popular for salmon fishing and as a jumping-off point for boats cruising to Southeast Alaska.

Another option is to step aboard a larger crewed yacht, which might carry six or eight paying guests. The crew runs the boat and prepares meals while the guests enjoy the cruising experience.

For 22 seasons, Jean and Burton Nesset of Tacoma have carried six to eight passengers on cruises through U.S. and B.C. waters aboard their vessel, the 59-foot Sacajawea.

Their 12- and 14-day cruises begin in Seattle and wander as far north as Desolation Sound, Campbell River and Alert Bay. Unlike large cruise ships, the Sacajawea anchors or finds a dock every night. Passage on Sacajawea is about $250 a day.

For a more elaborate charter, there's the Jamal. It's a 75-foot luxury yacht based in Seattle that carries up to eight overnight guests. In May and June, Jamal cruises in Southeast Alaska; in July and August the yacht operates in the San Juans and the Gulf Islands of B.C. Charter fees range from $16,000 to $24,000 a week.

Your pockets not that deep?

Other opportunities for sea travel in B.C. are provided by the ferries operated by the states of Washington and Alaska and by British Columbia.

Washington ferries traverse only a small section of B.C. waters on their run from Anacortes to Sidney, on Vancouver Island.

B. C. Ferries, however, operates boats on 25 routes serving 46 ports of call.

Ferries run between Vancouver Island and the B.C. lower mainland, throughout the Gulf Islands, along the Sunshine Coast north of Vancouver, from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert and to Bella Coola and from Prince Rupert to the Queen Charlotte Islands, 80 miles off the coast.

Closer to home, vacationers could spend days exploring the Gulf Islands, harbor-hopping on the smaller inter-island B.C. ferries.

A boat ride from Vancouver Island to Saltspring Island, for example, will last only a few minutes. Spend a day or two visiting the island's many art studios. Galiano Island, a short ferry ride from Nanaimo, is noted for its rural atmosphere, its art communities, B&Bs and cafes.

Longer trips are available, too. The system's Discovery Coast Passage runs north along the Inside Passage and take 15 hours.

B.C. ferries require reservations on many of the longer.trips.

Ships of the Alaska Marine Highway System, operator of the big ferries familiarly known as "blue canoes" also spend a lot of time in B.C. waters.

Weekly, an Alaska ferry departs Bellingham for Ketchikan, 37 hours away. Its route follows the Inside Passage through British Columbia. Other Alaska ferries serve a web of routes through southeast Alaska.

Reservations are needed on the Alaska ferries, too.

It doesn't matter how you travel B. C. waters - private yacht, mini-cruise ship, or ferry - it's being there that counts.

IF YOU GO

Boating the B.C. coast

Here are some sources of more information for planning a boating trip along British Columbia's Inside Passage:

Yacht charters

Major U.S. charter firms in Northwest Washington include Grand Yachts Northwest in Bellingham, 800-826-1430 (www.grandyachtsnw.com); Anacortes Yacht Charters, 800-233-3004, (www.anacortescharter.com); ABC Yacht Charters, Anacortes, 800-426-2313, (www.abcyachtcharters.com).

Yachts may be chartered in B.C., as well. Consult boating magazines, such as the Canadian-published Pacific Yachting, for details. It's available in marine-supply stores.

Mini cruise ships

Sacajawea, at Catalyst Cruises, 800-670-7678, (www.cruisenw .com); Jamal, owner and skipper Jim Hanna, 206-310-3310.

Ferries

Washington state, 206-464-6400 or 888-808-7977 (www.wsdot.wa .gov/ferries); B.C. Ferries, 250-386-3431, (www.bcferries.bc.ca); Alaska, 800-642-0066 (www.dot.state.ak.us).

It's possible to make reservations on-line with the B.C. and Alaska systems.

For help in planning a B.C. vacation, and in making reservations, call Tourism B.C.in Vancouver, 800-663-6000. Bob Lane is a former Seattle Times reporter and now a freelance writer.