Northern Adventure info

[Koastal Karl]

I dont remember if this has been asked before but at Port Hardy if you driving a truck and trailer do you have to back on the Northern Adventure??? I heard something about that before but I am not sure. Would there be professionals that would be able to back your vehicle on if your not comfortable with doing it???

Reason I ask is I am travelling in my own car in August and my family will be joining me on the sailing too with their truck and trailer which is a total of 40 feet in length. It will be the first time towing a trailer on a big trip so my dad is a little worried about loading. Any info would be great. My mom is worried about the dog being locked on the car deck for 15 hours too. In addition to the car deck visits could you go down if you asked a ferry employee??? How often are the car deck visits on the Nor Ad???

[WettCoast]

I think it very unlikely that you would have to back on, as a truck pulling a trailer should have adequate room to be turned in the area just back of the bow on the NorAd's car deck. The vehicles that have to be backed on are large (long) trucks and RV's, or vehicles which are loaded when the car deck is more or less full and there is no room to allow turning. In the unlikely event that backing on is necessary they have crew (hostlers?) available to assist (the same people who load truck trailers, especially for shipment to the Charlottes). You need not worry.

As for the dog, you need not worry either. They have car deck openings about every four hours, allowing you to go down and retrieve stuff, or walk the dog. If your trip also includes a Bella Bella stop that provides another opportunity.

[Nick]

We towed a 20ft travel trailer on the NorAd last summer (our total length is about 38ft), and didn't have any trouble turning around in the bow. The crew is pretty good about guiding you around.

There were a couple large trailers (I'm talking 35ft or so trailer length) that had to back on, but everybody else was able to turn around. They loaded all the overheight/overlength vehicles first, so there would be room for everybody to turn.

They let you go down to the car deck every few hours or so to look after the dog and do anything else you had too. I'm pretty sure on our trip the car deck was open every 2-3 hours or so. Unfortunately, they won't let you down at any time other than those specified (or at least when my dad and I tried they didn't). The only issue we had was that the dog didn't want to do "her business" on the steel deck, so she was holding it for the whole sailing.

I don't think you need to worry, Karl. The crew is pretty good about helping out.

[Northern Exploration]

My friends who travel everywhere with their dog keep a roll of cheap green carpet they got from a MiniPut Golf Course. There is a spray you can get that is not noticable to human that encourages pets to do their duty. They put a small square of this stuff out in situations like that and the dog does their thing. The whole thing then gets rolled up and put in a garbage bag. I don't think it is very eco friendly but works.

Friends here swear that paper training their pooch before she was started using the great outdoors is perfect for bad weather and when they travel to hotels. In a snow storm they put the paper on the balcony of their condo and the little thing does her duty there. When in a hotel they take a few sheets of paper down to the parking lot and she is quite happy to do her thing there as well. Saves them from getting mugged in LA or where ever they are visiting.

On the other hand my brothers giant dog is telepathic. Where-ever you think "oh please don't go there" of course that is where he goes.

It seemed on the QoftN the announcement came once in the morning, afternoon, and evening. I never drove on the ferry so actually didn't go down to the car decks while underway. That was on the 7am to 10pm daylight sailings.