Haha Doug, you make me sound so mean!
Anyways, I'm back from the trip, and have a story to tell.
1:20pm, I arrived at Tsawwassen, and met Doug during my walk from the Long term parking lot to the ticket booth. It was a beautiful sunny day today, and I was glad I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. The Saanich came in a few minutes late, but managed to make up the time.
Once we were onboard, we did the traditional walk around the ship. But before we even left the dock, I asked the Chief Steward if we could get a bridge tour. He told us that he'll let the Chief officer decide, as he was about to check into the office once we were clear of the dock. So we waited in the lounge outside of the office, and observed the vibrations from the interior. The Cheif officer eventually came, and then told us to follow him up to the bridge. We had some good conversation with all of the bridge crew, who were all awesome to talk to. We even found photos of our forum celeb in the bridge! That was when we revealed to them we were from the same group as her, and then the crew was the ones asking us questions for once.
Both Doug and I got to take turns at blowing the horn. It wasn't as fun and exciting as it was to blow the Vancouvers horn, but it was fun nonetheless. A video of this will follow tomorrow.
The Vancouver was running late, so we passed her just off of Village Bay.
We got to stay up there until we were passing Ruckle Park on Saltspring Island, and then we were asked nicely to hit the road, so to speak
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So we did another wander around the ship, getting photos of whatever we could before we docked.
The Queen of Saanichs bell is now gone! It has been replaced with a nameless bell unfortunately. A sign of a lingering retirement.
I'll save the interior photos for my pbase photo hosting website. So here's a teaser of the Saanichs unique interior.
As we were approaching the dock at Swartz Bay, was when things got really interesting! Doug and I were beginning to make our way to near the back of the ship, when we noticed smoke filling the lounges. My heart nearly dropped, and thought for sure we were going to be in the middle of a ship disaster. We walked towards the Chief Stewards office to see if there was anything being done about the smoke. But it was at that point, was when the Chief Steward called up to the bridge saying that there was smoke in the lounge. The next thing we knew, most of the crew were in that lounge, checking all of the garbage cans and closets to find the source of the smoke. No alarms went off or anything, and we contined to glide into the berth. There was a crew change at this point, and the crew that was boarding helped out with trying to find the source too. We were finally casually directed off the vessel, like nothing was going on. But the load for the next sailing had to wait about 10 mins or so until they could board.
Doug and I headed for the Lands End Cafe to grab something to eat, as a start at killing the 2 hour layover we had at Swartz Bay. Finally the Saanich pulled out of the dock, and the SOBC pulled in.
Eventually the Vancouver pulled in, about 20 mins late. Pretty much the same angle/photos as last weekend.
Maybe I'm seeing things, but I thought for sure that the seats along the windows are different from what was set up a couple of months ago.
We tried to get a bridge tour of the Vancouver too, but wasn't allowed because there was a crew of deckhands being trained on that sailing. So it was too full of people. This was a crowded sailing, and seating was certainly limited wherever we went. Nothing too interesting to note happened on this sailing, other than the fact that the Captain seemed to like using the horn whenever possible. It was used to warn a couple of boats just after we left Swartz Bay, and was used again while it was moving from Berth 5 to Berth 1 at Tsawwassen.
Around 8:00pm we pulled into Tsawwassen, and watched the Vancouver move from Berth 5 to Berth 1, followed by the Alberni departing for Duke Point.
Thats all for tonight. Hope you've enjoyed!
Cheers!
Bridge tours anyone...? 
Bridge tours anyone...? 
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