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Post by futureferrydriver on Oct 6, 2018 9:58:23 GMT -8
An interesting service notice in place for Route 3, and I believe this is the first time I've seen BC Ferries plan ahead for something like this. This seems like a smart plan, and something that will hopefully be appreciated by Thanksgiving travellers leaving SSC this weekend.
"Heavy Foot Passenger Traffic Langdale and Horseshoe Bay Monday October 8th
On Monday October 8th, the Queen of Surrey is expecting heavy foot passenger traffic travelling between Langdale and Horseshoe Bay on the following sailings: 10:55 am, 1:50 pm, and 3:30 pm.
In the event that passenger license is met, BC Ferries has made arrangements to supplement foot passenger service with a water taxi for the 10:55 am and 1:50 pm sailings.
BC Ferries would encourage foot passengers travelling with us to consider an earlier or later sailing on the day if they have travel flexibility.
For more information or traffic updates please follow @bcferries on Twitter, visit our website at bcferries.com, or call us toll free at 1-888-BCFERRY (223-3779)."
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Nov 3, 2018 17:39:42 GMT -8
Never seen this of service notice with Queen of Surrey cancelling some trips but BC Ferries has added addition sailings for Queen of Surrey.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Nov 3, 2018 20:32:40 GMT -8
Queen of Cowichan has cancelled her last round trip but not the Queen of Oak Bay.
I don’t think this tellling the whole story because why would the Queen of Oak Bay still sail if is not safe sail for last round trip.
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Post by Mike on Nov 3, 2018 20:55:42 GMT -8
Queen of Cowichan has cancelled her last round trip but not the Queen of Oak Bay.I don’t think this tellling the whole story because why would the Queen of Oak Bay still sail if is not safe sail for last round trip. Because the Queen of Oak Bay is crewed out of Horseshoe Bay, and it needs to be re-positioned back to it's home port for tomorrow's sailings. The Cowichan is the Nanaimo crewed ship.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Nov 3, 2018 21:29:23 GMT -8
Queen of Cowichan has cancelled her last round trip but not the Queen of Oak Bay.I don’t think this tellling the whole story because why would the Queen of Oak Bay still sail if is not safe sail for last round trip. Because the Queen of Oak Bay is crewed out of Horseshoe Bay, and it needs to be re-positioned back to it's home port for tomorrow's sailings. The Cowichan is the Nanaimo crewed ship. I know that; but, I said last round trip not the last trip. I hope both vessels would have same weather conditions to each other because why would Queen of Oak Bay crew feel safe to sail compared to Queen of Cowichan crew. The crew would know about the weather advisory earlier in the day since they revised route 3 schedule early in the day due the weather advisory,
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Post by Mike on Nov 3, 2018 22:05:50 GMT -8
Because the Queen of Oak Bay is crewed out of Horseshoe Bay, and it needs to be re-positioned back to it's home port for tomorrow's sailings. The Cowichan is the Nanaimo crewed ship. I know that; but, I said last round trip not the last trip. I hope both vessels would have same weather conditions to each other because why would Queen of Oak Bay crew feel safe to sail compared to Queen of Cowichan crew. The crew would know about the weather advisory earlier in the day since they revised route 3 schedule early in the day due the weather advisory, Because the Cowichan is crewed from Vancouver Island, they most likely canceled the last round trip to avoid stranding the Cowichan at Horseshoe Bay, if the weather conditions worsened beyond the point where it was safe to sail back.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,196
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Post by Neil on Nov 25, 2018 21:23:01 GMT -8
The forecast wild weather is here, and I see that the final evening sailings for Alert Bay and Sointula are cancelled. Not often that happens, with the tough little Quadra Queen II. Could be a difficult morning for travel, and in fact, maybe all through Tuesday, system wide.
On Hornby right now, we have the larger Quinitsa, but her unseaworthiness doesn't give any assurance, particularly when I think back to last Wednesday when she smacked the dock at Gravelly Bay hard, twice, in winds considerably less than what we're forecast to get. It's been a fairly mellow autumn so far, both in terms of wind and rain, but maybe Mother Nature is going to start evening things up.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Nov 26, 2018 16:26:43 GMT -8
Quinitsa left Hornby for the first time today at 4:15. Salish Raven is making a meagre 10.7 knots and appears headed for the coast of Texada, southwest of Blubber Bay, where presumably she might have a bit more sheltered path to Powell River.
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Post by Kahloke on Nov 27, 2018 7:32:53 GMT -8
Quinitsa left Hornby for the first time today at 4:15. Salish Raven is making a meagre 10.7 knots and appears headed for the coast of Texada, southwest of Blubber Bay, where presumably she might have a bit more sheltered path to Powell River. Pretty wild day, I guess, from northern Puget Sound up through the San Juans and Gulf Islands. We didn't have much, if any, wind in Gig Harbor, but sure had a lot of rain. I think The Port Townsend-Keystone run was shut down all day yesterday.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Nov 28, 2018 20:13:03 GMT -8
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Neil
Voyager
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Post by Neil on Dec 14, 2018 21:21:07 GMT -8
Did anyone travel, or try to travel, across the strait today?
I was out for about three hours in the afternoon, but the rest of the time, I was periodically looking in at ferry operations, and the current wind conditions. There were forecasts of severe weather that for the most part, didn't quite occur. It seemed that sailings in the earlier part of the day were cancelled due to forecast wind, rather than actual conditions at the time. I was wondering what all those people stuck at Tsawwassen might have been thinking about wimpy ferries, when it wasn't exactly blowing a hurricane.
Then this evening, Environment Canada forecast gust up to 90kph, but BC Ferries didn't cancel any sailings in anticipation. Curious.
Mill Bay to Brentwood was cancelled for at least one sailing, which is unusual. No one wants to see ferries sailing when there is a possible difficulty in docking, which I think is the usual concern on the cross-strait runs. Apparently, the parameters for safe operation are not always apparent to the layman.
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Post by Kahn_C on Dec 15, 2018 15:30:06 GMT -8
I came across from Comox on Thursday at 3:25, expecting the 7 to get cancelled and sure enough it did... But that 3:25 sailing was some of the snottiest weather I've ever crossed the strait in. The Salish boats seem to handle the weather great, I don't know why they're still often cancelling things as if the Burnaby was still on the run.
I'm happy they sailed because it got me home, but it was way, way worse out than the other sailings they cancelled for the next day. It'd be nice if the cancellations were more predictable.
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Post by Brandon S on Dec 15, 2018 19:25:06 GMT -8
Went today on the 9am SWB-TSW and 5pm TSW-SWB. 9am was more choppier then the return trip, or it might have been that the Coastal's can ride the storm a lot better than the Spirit's.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Dec 15, 2018 21:24:08 GMT -8
Yikes. One service cancellation no one could quibble with is today's loss of service between Skidegate and Alliford Bay. I've been looking at the weather periodically over the last few hours, and it's been tumultuous. Currently gusting to 128kph at Sandspit.
Makes me wonder how the Kwuna fares docked at Alliford in such a tempest. The berth there is so minimal... just a concrete ramp, with a couple of dolphins on one side. I imagine they tie up the ship deep enough that she doesn't slam bottomside in the heaving seas.
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Post by westernflyer on Dec 15, 2018 23:37:58 GMT -8
Yikes. One service cancellation no one could quibble with is today's loss of service between Skidegate and Alliford Bay. I've been looking at the weather periodically over the last few hours, and it's been tumultuous. Currently gusting to 128kph at Sandspit. Makes me wonder how the Kwuna fares docked at Alliford in such a tempest. The berth there is so minimal... just a concrete ramp, with a couple of dolphins on one side. I imagine they tie up the ship deep enough that she doesn't slam bottomside in the heaving seas. Your post got me thinking, how sheltered is the terminal at Alliford Bay? I had a look on Google Earth, and it does appear that it's very well protected. I bet there's not a lot of wave action in there at all, especially in a Southeaster. Of course you can only learn so much from a satellite image.
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Post by WettCoast on Dec 16, 2018 9:11:22 GMT -8
Yikes. One service cancellation no one could quibble with is today's loss of service between Skidegate and Alliford Bay. I've been looking at the weather periodically over the last few hours, and it's been tumultuous. Currently gusting to 128kph at Sandspit. Makes me wonder how the Kwuna fares docked at Alliford in such a tempest. The berth there is so minimal... just a concrete ramp, with a couple of dolphins on one side. I imagine they tie up the ship deep enough that she doesn't slam bottomside in the heaving seas. Your post got me thinking, how sheltered is the terminal at Alliford Bay? I had a look on Google Earth, and it does appear that it's very well protected. I bet there's not a lot of wave action in there at all, especially in a Southeaster. Of course you can only learn so much from a satellite image. I have been on the Kwuna quite a few times over the years and I believe westernflyer is right. Alliford Bay is fairly sheltered under most wind conditions. The other terminal (Skidegate) is much less sheltered, however, as is the run itself. I wonder how many sailings in an 'average' year are cancelled because of weather/sea conditions on this route and how that compares with other BCF routes. When the time comes to replace the Kwuna will they upgrade the ship/berths so that they can operate in rougher conditions?
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Dec 20, 2018 19:44:03 GMT -8
Queen of Coquitlam and Queen of Oak Bay are operating on extreme modificated schedule.
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Post by whalebreath on Dec 21, 2018 21:49:37 GMT -8
When the time comes to replace the Kwuna will they upgrade the ship/berths so that they can operate in rougher conditions? Why bother? There are only a couple dozen vehicles a day use that terminal in winter it's a sparsely populated little place with nowhere to go and nothing to do when you get there. I remember in 1989 that run was out for a few days when a new deckhand filled the boat (diesel) with gasoline-it took a few days of mechanical grunt work to get the thing operating again but the vehicle 'backlog' was cleared in no time and life went on except for the usual suspects bleating on & on & on.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Dec 22, 2018 10:40:55 GMT -8
When the time comes to replace the Kwuna will they upgrade the ship/berths so that they can operate in rougher conditions? Why bother? There are only a couple dozen vehicles a day use that terminal in winter it's a sparsely populated little place with nowhere to go and nothing to do when you get there. I remember in 1989 that run was out for a few days when a new deckhand filled the boat (diesel) with gasoline-it took a few days of mechanical grunt work to get the thing operating again but the vehicle 'backlog' was cleared in no time and life went on except for the usual suspects bleating on & on & on. That's kind of harsh. I imagine that all the 'usual suspects' who live in Sandspit have their reasons for liking their community. In December of 2017, 1453 vehicles left Alliford Bay. Just under 50 a day, or twice what you mentioned. Granted, that's pretty light traffic, but the numbers double in summer.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Dec 22, 2018 14:00:49 GMT -8
...and as a p.s. to my post above, I see a current service notice advising that the Kwuna is shuttling to relieve a backlog of vehicles from weather cancellations. So I guess that sometimes there is a considerable volume of traffic.
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Post by Departure Bay on Jan 6, 2019 21:24:06 GMT -8
Duke Point terminal is going to be closed on January 26 and 27 and all Duke Point traffic will use Departure Bay instead. Oh boy, that'll be a ton of fun to watch!! But I'm glad they won't be powering up the Coastal Inspiration at 4:45 am. www.bcferries.com/bcfservicenotice?id=4965
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Post by Starsteward on Jan 7, 2019 8:20:28 GMT -8
Duke Point terminal is going to be closed on January 26 and 27 and all Duke Point traffic will use Departure Bay instead. Oh boy, that'll be a ton of fun to watch!! But I'm glad they won't be powering up the Coastal Inspiration at 4:45 am. www.bcferries.com/bcfservicenotice?id=4965 The service notice is no longer viewable, so just wondering why the complete shutdown of the Duke Point terminal? Agreed that ferry-spotting at Departure Bay will be interesting those two days.
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Post by Departure Bay on Jan 7, 2019 8:40:17 GMT -8
Strange - they put up a new service notice . Not sure what the difference is. But here's the text. Duke Point Terminal - Temporary Closure
January 26 & 27, 2019 Please be advised that the Duke Point terminal will be temporarily closed on January 26 and January 27, 2019 to complete required berth upgrades to the marine structures. During this two-day closure period, sailings will operate out of the nearby Departure Bay Terminal. Customers who would normally travel between Tsawwassen and Duke Point will instead arrive at or depart from Departure Bay. Sailings will depart from both Departure Bay and Tsawwassen on the following schedule: Saturday, January 26 Sunday, January 27 6:50 am 9:20 am 9:20 am 11:50 am 11:50 am 2:20 pm 2:20 pm 4:50 pm 4:50 pm 7:20 7:20 pm 9:50 pm
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Post by Departure Bay on Jan 7, 2019 20:20:46 GMT -8
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Post by Departure Bay on Jan 8, 2019 20:27:47 GMT -8
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