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Post by Curtis on Mar 30, 2020 17:42:02 GMT -8
While the Island Discovery is getting lots of attention with her dock trials the last week, it's easy to forget the Island Aurora was the first of the two to explore the BC Coast. What was originally supposed to be a laid back ride across Saanich Inlet turned into an impromptu ship spotting session. Here are my captures from that day with the MV Klitsa as my viewing platform. Warning: Photo Heavy! All Photos are © CS16 Photography and may only be used with Permission from the Owner.For the first half of the trip, she was pretty distant. Had to give my telephoto lens a real workout.
It also didn't help that she U turned back towards Satellite Channel as we got closer.
Might be worth using this one for our next flagship contest. Thankfully she U turned again and sailed back toward us.
Seeing as we were getting close to Mill Bay by this point, I had to act fast.
Once off the Klitsa, (After quickly jumping in my car as we started to unload) I pulled to the side of the road for a few more shots. By this point she was too distant again, so I had to end it off here. I might have waited for her to turn back had I not been scheduled to work that evening.
That's all for now!
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Post by Curtis on Mar 29, 2020 12:53:56 GMT -8
Time to catch up on my backlog. Starting with the Island Discovery from her naming ceremony in mid-February! Since Scott has already posted his photos from this event above, I'll avoid posting duplicates of his and post some views from different angles. All Photos are © CS16 Photography and may only be used with Permission from the Owner.That's all for now!
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Post by Curtis on Mar 26, 2020 9:20:41 GMT -8
Here’s a quick update on the Island Discovery’s movements over the next few days and weeks thanks to a Facebook update from the Northern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee.
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Post by Curtis on Mar 25, 2020 13:27:01 GMT -8
Island Discovery is on the move again. Left Buckley Bay just past 11:00 this morning and is currently off the south end of Texada Island heading into Malaspina Strait.
AIS destination is still set as Buckley Bay, but I’d say it’s safe to assume Saltery Bay is her next port of call.
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Post by Curtis on Mar 24, 2020 11:52:36 GMT -8
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Post by Curtis on Mar 24, 2020 9:31:02 GMT -8
Island Discovery is currently in Georgia Strait heading north off Galiano Island. AIS destination is set as Buckley Bay.
She left Point Hope yesterday and did sea trials in Satellite Channel and Boundary Pass before overnighting at Swartz Bay.
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Post by Curtis on Feb 27, 2020 18:54:01 GMT -8
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Post by Curtis on Feb 26, 2020 15:46:52 GMT -8
Now that the Island Discovery has started sea trials, I've set up this thread for ship-specific discussion.
I've moved the above post from the Island Class thread over to this one.
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Post by Curtis on Feb 26, 2020 15:39:53 GMT -8
Just setting up the Island Aurora's ship-specific thread.
I've moved the above posts of her sea trials last week to here from the Island Class thread.
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Post by Curtis on Feb 21, 2020 14:16:09 GMT -8
I want to know about doors? How do the doors leading from inside lounges to outside deck space compare with the Salish vessels? Have they installed double sets of slow moving 'submarine wannabe' doors with triple annoying electronic beepers? I hope not ... Thankfully none of those overbuilt Salish Class doors made it onto the Island Class vessels! They use those sliding hydraulic doors BC Ferries has been using on most of their vessels built since the 1990s. (e.g. on the car deck of the Spirits or the Capilano/Cumberland) The Salish Class actually have this door system too, but they only put them in the stairwells between the main vehicle deck and the passenger lounge. Why they didn’t use the same system for the sun deck doors I will never know.
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Post by Curtis on Feb 20, 2020 10:31:33 GMT -8
Live shot from just a few minutes ago on the MV Klitsa. I’ll have some better shots when I load them onto my computer.
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Post by Curtis on Feb 20, 2020 9:02:39 GMT -8
Island Aurora is on the move right now. Left Point Hope early this morning and is now off Swartz Bay. Destination is still set as Point Hope so no clue where it’s going. Quick update: Aurora is now in Satellite Channel off Piers Island. Appears to be headed for Saanich Inlet. If not she’s waiting for the Spirit of British Columbia to clear Berth 1.
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Post by Curtis on Feb 20, 2020 8:43:07 GMT -8
Island Aurora is on the move right now. Left Point Hope early this morning and is now off Swartz Bay. Destination is still set as Point Hope so no clue where it’s going.
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Post by Curtis on Feb 19, 2020 23:54:31 GMT -8
@curtis can you post your tour here? Done! Had to do a little work, but it should work now!! Here are links to the tour of the Island Discovery I made earlier today for our WCF Social Media pages. For the Facebook crowd (This should also work for the non-social media crowd) you can view the majority of the posted pictures in their unedited form. (e.g. none of the bells and whistles the young people use for their story posts) The only thing really missing from what was originally posted are the videos: Island Discovery/Island Aurora FacebookFor those of you who view our WCF Instagram, you can get the more complete unaltered version of the Island Discovery Tour: Island Discovery/Island Aurora Instagram
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Post by Curtis on Feb 19, 2020 23:03:20 GMT -8
Which vessel goes to which route? Can confirm that the Island Discovery will go to Route 18, while Island Aurora will go to Route 25.
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Post by Curtis on Feb 19, 2020 15:51:25 GMT -8
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Post by Curtis on Feb 19, 2020 13:48:18 GMT -8
Breaking news: The names have been revealed! I’ll wait for the official word, but I will say the sleuthing Low Light Mike did has paid off.
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Post by Curtis on Feb 18, 2020 15:01:33 GMT -8
Hmm, perhaps I should try making a mock-up schedule for this?
Now it might not be perfect, I'm giving my best guess on what the crossing times are based off the service speeds of the Island and Salish Class vessels. (It's more accurate than the BC Ferries schedule page IMO) I also tried not to increase the amount work hours for crew too drastically. I've labelled them as "Off Peak" and "Peak" cause those are the times of year I felt these schedules would work best.
I've split this into 2 scenarios: The "Off Peak" sees the Route 17 vessel stop at Texada during the morning while the Route 18 vessel does an evening trip to Little River. I feel this is the best option for either the off-season or year-round as it doesn't disrupt the morning commute from Texada and it only alters the morning schedule on Route 17.
The "Peak" has the Route 18 vessel do a morning and an evening trip to Little River while the first Route 17 round trip does a pick-up and drop-off at Blubber Bay during the morning to make up for the lost Route 18 trip. As the name suggests, this works better as a Summer service as it only disrupts the first round trip on Route 17 and would only set Texada commuters back half-an-hour in the morning compared to the current schedule. The 2 dedicated round trips to Texada I feel could also encourage tourists on Vancouver Island to make a day-trip over to Texada not having to transfer at Westview.
Overall, that's just my thoughts on the matter. Like I said yesterday, the actual trial probably won't last. To do this would probably require a serious rearranging of the vehicle staging area at Blubber Bay so Westview bound vehicles aren't blocking the Little River ones and vice-versa. Even then, I feel Powell River residents still wouldn't be happy with the stop at Blubber Bay. Likewise with Texada residents and the lost Route 18 round trips. Can't please everyone I suppose.
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Post by Curtis on Feb 17, 2020 13:34:52 GMT -8
I'm a bit curious about the payment method leaving Texada- get on board, and pay the ship's cashier. Honour system? Interesting they chose that way to do it. I'd have thought they would do fare collection similar to how it's done at Gravelly Bay with a crew member walking around with a portable payment device. Since they went with a more 'honour system' approach instead of say charging a higher 'return' fare at Little River I could see someone trying to cheat the system. One way I could see them getting past the fare evaders is by having passengers present their proof of payment from Blubber Bay while paying for their return at Little River. If they fail to present their proof of payment they'd pay either the regular Route 17 fare or a combined Route 17/18 fare. That might not be convenient for any non-locals that go the Little River-Blubber Bay way, (unless they did the 'proof of payment' thing I just suggested the opposite way too) but this service is more for the convenience of Texada residents than it is for tourists.
If you ask me though, I don't see this service lasting longer than the trial period unless some kind of compromise can be reached. One 'what-if' scenario I've been thinking about is having the Route 17 vessel stop in at Texada in the morning and the Route 18 vessel making a round trip to Little River during the evening. Another scenario they could try is having the Route 18 vessel do a round trip to Little River early in the morning and then have the Route 17 vessel stop in at Blubber Bay on the first sailing to Westview to load commuters and students. Hmm, perhaps I should try making a mock-up schedule for this?
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Post by Curtis on Feb 14, 2020 21:19:27 GMT -8
What, in the news article didn't you find different than in the protocol(s) for new-vessel namings? The Salish we knew there names before they arrived. These ones arrived and still have no name. Why didn’t BC Ferries release their names before they arrived? The only reason we knew the names of the Salish Class as early as we did was because they were decided through a contest. (Same with the Coastals) Had it not been for that, we probably wouldn’t have found out their names until the vessels were launched at the earliest. I will admit though they are taking their time revealing the names for these ships. The amount of time they’re taking is more in line with when BC Ferries buys a used vessel. One reason for the wait might be cause they chose ‘Island’ as the class name despite having the ‘Island Sky’ already using that prefix. So they had to rename the existing ship ‘Malaspina Sky’ before they named the new ships to avoid confusion. Another reason I could think why they haven’t been named yet is cause they were brought over on the Sun Rise instead of under their own power. If they had travelled under their own power, the ships would have needed names to properly identify themselves through radio communications. Who knows though? Maybe it was simply a cost saving measure by BC Ferries so they didn’t have to fly everyone out to Romania for a christening ceremony? We may never know.
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Post by Curtis on Dec 28, 2019 12:57:52 GMT -8
Here's my 2. A couple of the shots I might have picked were already Flagships this year so I had to look through my collection for some entries. Full SizeFull Size
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Post by Curtis on Nov 4, 2019 13:32:25 GMT -8
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Post by Curtis on Oct 27, 2019 13:04:00 GMT -8
After a little bit of Google image searching, I came across this picture from the BC Archives. That looks to be a match for the picture above. search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/quadra-island-ferry-at-quathiaski-coveComparing geographical features in both shots, it appears Quathiaski Cove is the location in the picture above, and the vessel arriving at the berth is likely the Quadra Queen (I), a.k.a. MV Nicola, a.k.a. Spirit of Lax Kw’alaams. The similar appearances of the terminal in both pictures would suggest the image above was taken sometime in the 60s. (Maybe the 1987 on the back of the picture was actually 1967?) This might check out as we know the Quadra Queen II came onto the scene in 1969 which would have displaced the Nicola from the route. Unless of course this was a refit relief situation which could place this picture at anytime in the 1970s. I doubt it’s past the 1980s though as we know the Tachek was seen a lot on Route 23 around that time. As for the location of the old terminal, I did a little looking around Quathiaski Cove on Google Maps and discovered “Old Ferry Road” 1.5 km north of the current terminal. A quick look at it on street view more or less confirmed it for me. It definitely makes more sense to have the terminal where it is today as it cuts 5 or 10 minutes off the trip not having to go around the north side of Grouse Island. Anyway, that concludes my photo sleuthing.
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Post by Curtis on Oct 24, 2019 17:43:06 GMT -8
I wonder how long it will take to put her new name on the vessel because it will require maintenance period which I don’t see happening until 2020. It’s already done. I imagine they painted the name on her sides last night after her last run of the day.
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Post by Curtis on Oct 21, 2019 13:48:27 GMT -8
The time has come for the Skeena Queen's Mid-Life Upgrade! The MLU will start October 28 and finish in March 2020. A few vessel shuffles will take place: The Queen of Cumberland will take the Skeena's place on Route 4, and the Cumberland's Route 5 spot will be filled by the Salish Raven. During the holiday season (December 20-January 1) the Bowen Queen will fill in on Route 4 on a modified schedule to make up for lost capacity, and the Cumberland and Raven will return to their spots on Routes 5 and 9a.
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