Much of an island’s allure is its remoteness and the adventure of getting there. Finding ferry schedules and figuring out what to bring and be without in these water-bound places are part of life offshore, and excitement builds as the journey’s different pieces fall into place. That pull has drawn me to Scotland’s Inner Hebrides and Orkney Isles, and the Canadian Arctic’s Cornwallis, Baffin, and Ellesmere islands, which I reached alone by bush plane in late winter.