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Post by futureferrydriver on Jul 14, 2018 14:10:15 GMT -8
In what has become a somewhat regular Saturday occurance, the Quinitsa is following the Skeena to carry the overloads. Its nice to see a legitimate response by BCF to the heavy traffic SSI experiences for Saturday market. And now, for some reason, both marine traffic and the BC Ferries map are showing Salish Eagle in Fulford Harbour. Three ferries on that route? I’ve been following along on Twitter; apperently there was a pretty serious accident on Long Harbour Road resulting in diversion of the Eagle to Fulford. It sounds like they’re going to load Tsawwassen traffic and leave from Fulford as well.
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jul 14, 2018 11:11:15 GMT -8
In what has become a somewhat regular Saturday occurance, the Quinitsa is following the Skeena to carry the overloads. Its nice to see a legitimate response by BCF to the heavy traffic SSI experiences for Saturday market.
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jul 10, 2018 14:06:55 GMT -8
The news is official; Northern Sea Wolf will NOT be entering service his summer. The start date of Port Hardy to Bella Coola direct service has been pushed back again, now to September 16th. The Northern Adventure will be used due to “uncertain date of completetion of refit work.” www.bcferries.com/bcferries/faces/attachments?id=1171735Not good news at all, I wonder what exactly is going on with the NSW. We are well past the expected completion date of refit work, and now it looks like they expect her to remain in refit until the end of September.
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jul 9, 2018 12:41:35 GMT -8
I have say BC Ferries is handling boat breaks downs in reasonable way by adding late nights trips for some ferries. I think the BC Ferries should build another major vessel just in case more breaks downs happen in future. The idea of “an extra ship in case of breakdowns” has been tossed around a lot lately, but in reality I think that would be a bad move. If there was another major ship available right now I am all but certain it wouldn’t be an extra ‘break downs’ ship; I expect it would become a number 3 ship on route 30, or perhaps a ship that could be shared between routes 2 and 30 or 1 and 30. In the summer months all 3 of these routes could benefit from additional capacity. Also, having an extra ship sitting around on standby (ie. ready to go within an hour or two) is hugely expensive. There wouldn’t be much point in having an extra ship laid up at FMU (ie. 2-3 days to get it into service) because mechanical difficulties rarely lead to cancelled sailings lasting more than a day.
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jul 5, 2018 14:22:30 GMT -8
Tachek just pulled into berth 4 at Swartz Bay. The paint looks so good I thought it was the Quadra Queen II returning from refit, however a crew member on the Mayne Queen claims she is on the way to Point Hope for refit.
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jul 4, 2018 11:55:40 GMT -8
It looks like the ball is starting to roll on the C-Class replacement project, with a request for proposals being put out yesterday. vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-ferries-plans-new-wave-of-five-big-replacement-shipsOne thing that hugely bothers me about this article is the whiny nature of local shipyards (in this case Allied Shipyards is specifically mentioned), and the general public wanting these ships to be built here. All of this despite the fact that Chuck Ko (head of Allied) admits their shipyards are not large enough to handle ships of this size, and that larger shipyards, such as Seaspan Vancouver, are too busy with federal contracts to take on additional projects.
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jun 29, 2018 14:45:56 GMT -8
No service notice yet, but current conditions has the Coq. doing a 7:30pm sailing from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo. No return trip posted so I assume it will dead head back and return to route 3.
Langdale has been quiet today so this seems like a good call on their part.
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jun 24, 2018 15:42:01 GMT -8
Quinitsa just went past outside of Departure Bay, heading north. For anyone keeping track; the Quinitsa left Fulford earlier today and has been bopping around the the gulf islands. Currently departing Village Bay. I’m not sure if these are supplemental to route 5/5A or maybe DG or something else entirely. CORRECTION: currently *docked* at Village Bay. EDIT: Heading back in the direction of Swartz Bay, I think its safe to assume she’s carrying traffic. I wonder if this will be a normal Sunday afternoon thing for the summer...
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jun 24, 2018 13:50:27 GMT -8
This is a bad call on BCF part. I think the Coquitlam should've been pulled from Langdale & deployed to HSB-Dep Bay as it is more busier. Other option would be to move the New West over to TSW- Duke Pt freeing up the Renaissance to be deployed to HSB-Dep Bay. Furthermore I don't like the way BCF handled the part of cancelling my reservation without phoning me to advise me of my sailing cancellation on Thursday. Instead at 425pm Friday I got a automated voice message stating that my sailing has been cancelled. The least they could've done was to phone me directly advising me that my sailing is cancelled & give me the option of rebooking on the sailing prior or after or a sailing of my choice. In the meantime all sailings from HSB-Dep Bay are sold out due to the long weekend ahead. Agreed, looking at todays current conditions page it seems that route 2 need the extra ship a lot more than route 3. I’m not sure why they can’t continue to split the Coquitlam between routes 2 and 3 like they do in shoulder season. Crew it out of Langdale so it doesn’t screw up the crewing schedules too much. That way it can do an extra morning commuter run from Langdale, then a round trip or two to Departure Bay and pick up the overload for the Langdale evening commute. They might not like it, but Langdale can probably survive another week without full-time 2 boat service.
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jun 8, 2018 20:13:58 GMT -8
I still haven’t been onboard yet but from my terminal side analysis the car decks are much brighter with the new LEDs. And I mean SO much brighter that it was noticeable to me, standing by berth 5 at Swartz Bay, looking into the MCD at berth 1.
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jun 7, 2018 11:16:21 GMT -8
Unless my eyes are deceiving me, the big mural picture of the 'Spirit of British Columbia' is a PRE-MLU version??? Or did I miss something? No that is Pre-MLU. That and the one that Deborah Marshall always is standing by on TV will need to be changed I assume we’re talking about the poster thing that from WCFF’s instagram page (first picture in the album shared above in this thread); it looks pretty much the same as pre-MLU but it looks like it has been updated to include the conversion to LNG. Notice that under “fuel capacity” it says “1 Natural Gas Tank....”
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jun 7, 2018 5:54:25 GMT -8
The Coastal Inspiration started up her engines about 10 minutes ago....at 4:45 am. She seriously vibrates my whole house and she woke us up again. Hopefully she's leaving soon and not just doing some sort of engine check because that would be really annoying. I don't see her listed as doing any sailings today so maybe she's heading over to Deas? Edit: Yep, there she goes. Looks like she’s going to the North Van dry dock!
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jun 6, 2018 9:33:18 GMT -8
Was / is the CI having work done? I had, I suppose incorrectly, thought she had been on Route 30 the last little bit. Wasn't the CR holding down the Route 1 primary vessel l out of Tsawwassen until yesterday? You are correct that the Renaissance HAS been doing route 1, but as of this morning the ‘BC is back in service. With that I believe it is now mini-refit time for the Inspiration. RBI has the Renaissance covering route 30 for a few weeks before returning to her regular summer role as the number 1 route 2 vessel from DPB. (June 26th as far as I can tell)
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jun 5, 2018 19:29:57 GMT -8
With the SOBC now being in TSA Berth 4 (as opposed to 1) it makes me wonder if they are going to use her for a soft revenue sailing launch tonight. It doesn't make much sense to have her in a operational berth for an extended stay. I was wondering the same thing, alas it looks like we will have to wait until tomorrow. I’m on the wrong side of route 1 to be on the 0700 sailing, but I’m thinking a little adventure from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen via the Gulf Islands and then taking the ‘BC back home could be a fun adventure if I end up having the day off tomorrow!
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 28, 2018 14:30:59 GMT -8
Surely with all the “added sailings” they’ve been posting lately they are aware that the schedule posted is missing sailings.
I wonder if they are intentionally leaving out some sailings from the schedule so that people think they are “adding them last minute” to accommodate traffic.
Alternate thought; maybe they don’t scheudle it so that if traffic volumes are low enough they can have the ship deadhead its run to Horseshoe Bay and picks up a catering crew there to save some money. (Although I’m not convinced the HSB staff are trained for the Coq.)
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 25, 2018 9:03:11 GMT -8
Re: Route 2 and 3 current schedules. . . The current schedule is quite interesting for the supplemental vessel (usually the Coquitlam). On weekdays it only shows this boat doing a 530pm Route 3 sailing from Horseshoe Bay and a 730pm Route 2 sailing from Horseshoe Bay. No other sailings listed. Given this ferry sleeps at Departure Bay, this boat either does 2 MD sailings or 2 deadheads. I would have to think they're always MD sailings, but why wouldn't they simply include those sailings on their weekday schedule? I find this quite strange. Very interesting indeed; Looking at todays departures page the Coquitlam does a 1000/1215 round trip from Dep. Bay to HSB and back. So she is in Departure Bay around 1400, but she doesn’t have any scheduled sailings back to HSB despite having a 1730 sailing from HSB to Langdale. This leaves her in Langdale with no scheduled sailing back to HSB for her 1930 trip home to Dep. Bay.
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 24, 2018 16:51:53 GMT -8
BC Ferries is getting a lot of heavy traffic on routes 4,6 and 12 today due to the Malahat closure.
It makes me wonder why there isn’t a properly prepared contingency plan in place for emergency Malahat closures. Surely something similar to the Sea to Sky closure plan from the Olympics could be set up for situations like this...
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 19, 2018 13:28:59 GMT -8
With the Queen of Cumberland back in service the Quinitsa’s time in the south has ended. She’s on her way back up (to Buckley Bay I assume?) passing by Nanaimo currently.
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 18, 2018 8:31:42 GMT -8
Quinitsa is on her way out of Fulford, looks like she is headed for Swartz Bay. Perhaps we are getting extra route 5 service for the busy weekend?
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 17, 2018 20:38:10 GMT -8
Cumby just exiting Active Pass on her way to Swartz Bay! Additionally, we sent over about half a dozen stores carts with food to Tsawwassen this morning labelled for the Cumby. Things are looking good for her return to service tomorrow!!
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 16, 2018 14:26:15 GMT -8
Its too bad they couldn’t have waited until after the long weekend to move her out of Deas. I imagine she’ll spend the majority of the next few weeks at Tsawwassen doing sea trials and crew training. From past experience we know that the general public tends to be very angry when they see a not in service ferry circling around the straight or tied up “doing nothing” while they’re stuck in a 3 sailing wait.
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 8, 2018 7:30:08 GMT -8
Looks like she did end up in Swartz Bay, tied up in berth 3 with the Inspiration in berth 2.
With the 9:00 Renaissance coming into berth 1 in a few minutes we have ourselves another Coastal class triple up!
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 5, 2018 14:17:36 GMT -8
This is all I could manage, she was only there for a few minutes. Very neat seeing such a small boat in berth 3. I'm not sure when (if ever) the QQ2 would have done dock trials at SWB but it only managed to fit in after a bit of adjustments by the ship and terminal crew. To elaborate; the ships crew had to disassemble part of the (for lack of a better word) gate at the front of the car deck in order to leave enough room for the apron to come down. On shore side they had to rope up some of the apron fingers (as seen in the picture) because the apron was a bit too wide for the ship!
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 5, 2018 12:41:25 GMT -8
IIRC it was previously mentioned that the pilot order is for 18:30. Does that mean its safe to assume SoBC will be anchored off of Vic until around then (alternative question; what time do we expect her to be moving again?). Trying to figure out how quickly I need to get downtown if I want to catch a glimpse!
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 5, 2018 10:38:08 GMT -8
The Quadra Queen II is visiting Swartz Bay today to drop off some crew vehicles. Currently about 20 minutes out, I’ll see what I can do for pictures!
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