A letter from Kevin Smith, captain, expedition leader, CEO and president of Maple Leaf Adventures
Introducing Cascadia
Our mission at Maple Leaf Adventures is:
- – That you have a remarkable experience of British Columbia and Alaska’s coast.
- – That we show how a business can protect our wildlife and ecosystems, be developed and run locally, respect our diverse coastal cultures, give back to (rather than take from) our home, and be a successful model for tourism business done right.
In this spirit, we are proud to introduce our third ship, a catamaran, Cascadia. In conjunction with our original schooner, Maple Leaf, and our 2015 arrival, Swell, Cascadia helps realize this mission – for you, and the coast.
Each year, our trips fill early, and many people who would like to explore the special worlds of Haida Gwaii, the Great Bear Rainforest, Vancouver Island and southeast Alaska cannot book a trip. As it requires skill, experience and a lot of capital investment to operate high-level trips on our 50,000 km of coastline, there are few options for guests. So we carefully considered how we could offer more trips in our same personalized, small-footprint manner.
After a year of exhaustive searching, we identified a special boat. If you know us, you’ll know we have high standards – for engineering, safety, beauty, delight, guest experience and environmental responsibility.
After another year of careful work, Cascadia crossed the Pacific Ocean, and we welcomed her to Canada.
She is a small ship for a small number of guests, like Maple Leaf and Swell, but she is more luxurious and spacious than either of them. She will appeal to some of our existing guests, and also to people who have wanted to travel here before but sought more spacious accommodations.
We look forward to introducing her guests to our waterways and fjords, continuing to focus on providing peak wildlife and cultural moments. Her trips will operate in the same manner as Maple Leaf and Swell’s: small groups of 12 or less in each shore group, with local, expert guides. We hope our new guests will fall in love with this place, too, and that some will feel moved to contribute to its protection.
Sincerely,
Kevin
