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Post by uricanejack on Jan 16, 2015 14:52:12 GMT -8
I was on the 1900 sailing from Swartz bay to Tsawwassen Last night. The Coastal ? last night The one with the Buffet. I was having a coffee and fries at the front of the Cafeteria. They had just done all the announcements about going back to your car. Having a nice window seat with a view of the dock I chose to ignore. We were quite close when i noticed the ship start to turn quite quickly to starboard, At first I though its a bit odd they must adjusting the course for be a bit more wind more something than
It wasn't a course adjustment, The ship went hard over to Starboard, We were quite Close to the Dock less than a mile I Think. And the Queen of Albernie, The Nanaiamo ferry was leaving. From The South Main Dock.
The cafeteria Staff thought the power was out.
The ship did a complete round turn before we went into the usual dock.
They made an announcement about waiting for a berth assignment.
It looked to me like the Queen of Albernie pulled out its Dock while the Coastal was on its final approach and they had to abort the landing by doing a round turn because we were to close to slow down.
A bit surprising I though they had a control tower, even so The Queen Of Albernie should have been able to see us coming.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2015 16:13:27 GMT -8
You were on the Coastal Celebration. The "Queen of Albernie" is indeed one of the Nanaimo ferries out of Tsawwassen. I'm not sure what the South Main Dock is. Ferry berths at Tsawwassen are numbered 1-5, from right to left, just like every other BC Ferry terminal. So at Tsawwassen berth 5 is the main victoria ferry berth.
I can't say I'm surprised at this event, as Coastals don't have the best manoeuvrability. Although if you had any photos, it would be helpful. I checked some Vancouver News outlets as well as the BC Ferries news release section and Service Notices, and didn't find any relevant items.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jan 16, 2015 16:17:36 GMT -8
I'm not sure what the South Main Dock is. "South Main Dock" is berth #3. ie. the berth normally used for Duke Point. ...of the 3 main double-decker berths, it is the one that is furthest south.
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Post by uricanejack on Jan 19, 2015 17:27:37 GMT -8
Yes The Queen Of Albernie must have left from dock no 3 the one on the right, The Coastal ship docked in its usual dock on the far left No 5. Unfortunately I did not have a Camera with me. Not news if no collision. There must have been a communication failure of some kind. I think doing a complete 360 turn of the end of the dock is very unusual.
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FNS
Voyager
The Empire Builder train of yesteryear in HO scale
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Post by FNS on Jan 19, 2015 19:39:39 GMT -8
Yes The Queen Of Albernie must have left from dock no 3 the one on the right, The Coastal ship docked in its usual dock on the far left No 5. Unfortunately I did not have a Camera with me. Not news if no collision. There must have been a communication failure of some kind. I think doing a complete 360 turn of the end of the dock is very unusual. Just a courtesy note: The proper spelling of the QOA ferry is QUEEN OF ALBERNI (there's no " E" at the end).
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Post by mybidness459 on Feb 17, 2018 18:09:56 GMT -8
Just read this post for the first time now. Usually the ships communicate with each other over the Company VHF radio. It is very common at HB especially for the Nanaimo inbound ship to Communicate with the terminal tower. For example you might hear the Queen of Cowichan ask what the situation is in the bay. Then it may get in radio contact with the vessel in the dock. I have a radio scanner and know that communication between ships and terminals is routine.
What happened in that situation with the Alberni I do not know. But upon departure the Alberni has to cross over the approach path of Berth 5. Now the Queen of Alberni departs at 20:15 and the Celebration is not sched to arrive until 20:35. What I would guess is that the Alberni was a little late in departing and did not want to fall further behind while waiting for the Coastal Celebration to arrive. So the Celebration would have to make a course change to clear the path for the Alberni to depart and cross over its path. But Just a guess. I would have let the Coastal ship dock first then depart if I was on the Alberni though.
But I assure you that all ships are in constant radio communications with other ships and terminals.
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