When you live on a small island, you have to commute every week or two, to run errands, keep appointments and generally “get off the rock” (a local expression). For me, it often means getting on a ferry very early in the morning, then transferring to a second ferry, to get to “town” (another local expression for Victoria, on Vancouver Island).

Above: Saturna Island, from the back of the ferry. On my way to town…

When you start doing this almost every week, you settle into a routine, and it becomes very easy to be blasé about that commute. Once the ferry departs, it’s tempting to just snooze, read a book or the paper you have just purchased on the ferry… To kill time.

Even while reading the paper or a book, it’s a good idea to remember to look up and take in the magic moments, all around, during that commute…

Above: in the late afternoon, after transferring to the second ferry, I get to watch the Cumberland Queen, first leg of my trip home, from which I have just disembarked, go off to its next round of destinations, to pick up people and vehicles on other islands… BC Ferries, the “floating highway” that links the Gulf Islands to the Lower Mainland of BC and to Vancouver Island.

Bonus! Another magic moment, an orca sighting from the ferry deck…