Fog bound and flowing

Seaplane terminal, Vancouver harbour, BC

Today is the beginning of a long road trip which will take me to several places in the next two weeks.   Starting off this morning in Vancouver where I am fogbound, waiting for the cloud ceiling to lift so we can fly out to Victoria.   The nature of the seaplane terminal in Vancouver harbour during a fog delay is reminiscent of what it must have felt like in the Chicago Bears dressing room yesterday as they felt their Superbowl chances slip away.   Here it is the same. On the coast, important people with important things to do travel by plane between Vancouver to Victoria and a lot of the time what they are doing is time-critical.   When the winter weather asserts its wild character on the best-laid and finest-tuned plans, faces grow red, legs start twitching and people grow anxious and angry. As flight after flight gets cancelled or further delayed, and the sense of helplessness grows, the atmosphere becomes bitter and frantic.   I really feel for the counter staff here at Harbour Air, who are eternally patient and good hearted.   They are cheerfully serving excellent espressos and capuccinos to lawyers and businessmen who don’t even look up from their Bluetooth enabled Blackberries while they desperately rebook their travel plans or apologize profusely to clients and bosses and give up altogether.

It makes matters workse that the Helijet is flying; Sikorskies are cruising up over the seaplane terminal every half hour on their way to Victoria.   When one flies over, everyone here lifts their eyes wistfully skyward and curses their bad fortune at having booked on the seaplane rather than the helicopter.

And now comes news that my flight is cancelled and so I am going to hop a ferry to the Island and make a day of travelling.   Ferries and buses it is.

[tags]harbour air[/tags]