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Post by Ferryman on Jan 7, 2023 22:34:36 GMT -8
This year, both Spirits will be at refit at the same time. Sometime next week, the SOVI will be taken out of service and the Inspiration will come down to cover for her. Celebration will run on Route 30 Yikes, that is a significant reduction in capacity for Rt 1. It's bad enough when one Spirit is out. Noted for my next trip down...
Also, just to add to WC's comment... drydocking is typically done twice in 5 years, or every 2 years once the ship hits a certain age (can't remember off the top of my head, might be 30?).
Yes, a bit of a blow for capacity. Hard to believe it's been 4 years (pre Spirit MLU) since the last time the Coastals were deployed as number one ships for the winter season while ridership was low. Also, if I'm not mistaken, neither Spirit has been drydocked since the MLU in Poland, until today.
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Post by Ferryman on Jan 7, 2023 11:11:50 GMT -8
Where is the Spirit of British Columbia going? Every year in the period between New Year's & mid March the Spirits get their annual refits, first the SoBC and then the SoVI. They typically last about 4-5 weeks for each ship. The work is done at their home terminals, or at Deas, and occasionally (once every 5 years?) at one of the large dry docks. Marine Traffic tells me that SoBC is about to go under the Lions Gate Bridge. This year, both Spirits will be at refit at the same time. Sometime next week, the SOVI will be taken out of service and the Inspiration will come down to cover for her. Celebration will run on Route 30
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Post by Ferryman on Jan 7, 2023 10:36:56 GMT -8
Where is the Spirit of British Columbia going? Vancouver Drydock for refit
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Post by Ferryman on Dec 30, 2022 10:15:25 GMT -8
While I do totally agree that the blue tips at either end are throwing off the New West's lines, but I'd say it was done more as a practicality in this case. We've seen this done on the Spirits in recent years and even some of the C-Class when they came out of MLU. The blue stripe serves well for hiding any rust streaks from the deck edge of the upper car deck. When it was white, you'd see every dribble of dirty water or rust sitting there. Now, not so much
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Post by Ferryman on Dec 18, 2022 8:00:02 GMT -8
That's the cooler for the beer (and wine?); I am similarly unsure of what the question is though. Perhaps that the cooler is on a vessel not assigned to Route 1? That is the cooler that is used to display beer and wine aboard one of the C-Class vessels. I was traveling on the Oak Bay yesterday and it was officially stocked up. However this past monday, the cooler was there but not stocked up. So I would say beer and wine are officially available on Route 2 now as well
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 30, 2022 9:08:24 GMT -8
Canceled sailings yd on rt. 1, 2, 30: does anybody else think it's riddiculous to have canceled those sailings over a little snowfall? No, because there was a SE gale warning out on the strait yesterday afternoon and evening. Most of the ships have 35-40 knot limitations, which was exceeded last night. The snow wouldn't have had much bearing on the decision
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 26, 2022 22:30:59 GMT -8
25 years ago, the reservation system was started at BC Ferries. I can't remember if it was specific only for route 1 at the time, but Chek news did a throwback news story on the event
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 26, 2022 22:05:18 GMT -8
What are the size limits for the lay by berth at Fulford? Could the intermediate class or Skeena Queen fit, or are they too wide and/or long? Anything bigger than the Bowen/Mayne Queen is too big. Mostly because of the leftover pilings from the now defunct Fulford Marina, that encroach on the approach. Not sure if the Quinsam would fit, but definitely the Skeena would not fit
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 26, 2022 21:10:14 GMT -8
To simply keep all four of the Tsawwassen based route 30 crews trained to work on the New West to keep options available if there's a sudden ship shuffle Why only for those selected dates? I didn’t know that vessels know when to breakdown, I am just joking around. Right now, the weekends are when the slowest commercial vehicle demand occurs. So by running the New West on the statistically slowest weekends, they can do so with the least impact to service (less chance for overloads). During the week, it's not uncommon for the Coastal Inspiration to depart Tsawwassen at 10:45pm with an entirely full main vehicle deck of about 29/30 semi trucks onboard, with only about 20 cars parked on the upper vehicle deck. Same goes for the Duke Pt side at 10:45pm. Route 30 has outgrown the New West, and also the Alberni.
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 26, 2022 12:28:43 GMT -8
To simply keep all four of the Tsawwassen based route 30 crews trained to work on the New West to keep options available if there's a sudden ship shuffle
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 18, 2022 22:40:01 GMT -8
Bowen Queen's AIS name appears to have changed to "A", on Marine traffic.
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 14, 2022 13:28:18 GMT -8
Where is a day trip from Swartz Bay mentioned on those schedules? In the printed schedules, there used to be a small section that would suggest day trips from Victoria, if I remember correctly. But, I don't see it listed within the links that BBF posted.
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 8, 2022 23:03:59 GMT -8
Deck 5 remains closed due to a combination of factors. Not only do the Coastals typically run with a lower crew count on Route 30, but there simply isn't the ridership demand for it to even be deck 5 to even be necessary. In the heat of Summer on an A license, route 30 would only average around 800 passengers during the peak times of the day. The Coastals can carry 1600 passengers with 34 crew on an A license and about 860 with 23 crew on a C license. Pre-covid, the Coastals would have over 40 crew to open up all lounges and amenities on Routes 1 and 2.
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 7, 2022 11:14:15 GMT -8
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 7, 2022 11:05:47 GMT -8
The terminal at Shearwater has been closed for several weeks now, and will continue to be until further notice. A tug/barge and water taxi service has been setup to transport vehicles and passengers, respectively, between Bella Bella and Shearwater www.bcferries.com/current-conditions/service-notices?serviceNoticeCode=8800163901192&subscriptionRoute=PPH-PBB-SHW-POF-BECAdditionally, the berth at Bella Coola is being upgraded, and the Sea Wolf has been simply docking at Bella Coola to move traffic on and off the ship. Once vehicle transfer operations are complete, the ship then sits at anchor just off the berth until her next scheduled sailing to allow room for crews to work on the berth. As some may know, the winter schedule on Route 28s is pretty relaxed where it typically on actually sails between Fridays and Mondays.
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 6, 2022 8:54:28 GMT -8
Looks like the Queen of Tsawwassen is being towed by the tug "Quadrant Partner", who now appears to be approaching Port Melon. Presumably she will join the Carrier Princess at a site near the pulp mill that is about to start a scrap operation
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Post by Ferryman on Nov 3, 2022 17:13:27 GMT -8
The Northern Sea Wolf has a pretty good stock of assets that have lived on from ships that have been retired. The Aft mast from the Burnaby was repurposed as a mast on the NSW. Two of the evacuations slides, or at least just the box/storage casings from the Nanaimo are on the NSW. Also, one of the Rescue Boats is from the Queen of Chilliwack, which was new from the Chilliwacks last major refit prior to being sold. Sundeck railing mesh/screens were also refurbished and put into use on the Sea Wolf and Skeena Queen. I imagine other items like seating have been removed and kept in storage for use on other vessels as time goes on
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Post by Ferryman on Oct 27, 2022 12:44:41 GMT -8
Only thing is... what do you do when you get there? No public transport on the island, and you can't bring your car over. I wonder what the barge service costs to bring a vehicle. I've always been fascinated by Lasqueti... the largest population on our coast that doesn't have, and doesn't want, a vehicle connection with the rest of the province. Yeah, Neil, I was looking into that and you are right. They don't want campers (no approved place to camp anywhere, I gather), but it is possible to do a B&B, from what I read. The ferry makes three round trips daily so you could do a day trip having maybe 6 or 8 hours on Lesquiti. You can take a bike with you (at an extra charge) which would allow you to see & get around a little more than you could on foot.
It also looks like that boat has no outside deck space for passengers (except maybe at the stern). So if one of your goals is photography you might find that shooting from that boat is not so good.
Maybe the money you might spend on a trip to Lesquiti might be better spent on something like the Uchuck III out of Gold River.
A couple of summers ago I made a trip over to Lasqueti Island to visit a friend who was working over there. If rustic/off grid is what you like, then that is the place to be! Spotty cell service, no electricity, dirt roads, unregistered or insured vehicles, the list goes on! There are some nice spots there for sure, such as Squitty Bay park at the south end. Would no doubt be a full day adventure on a bicycle to get there. The pub is decent, and that's right beside the ferry dock. We also went to the community hall there which had a live band playing that night. Great small community vibes there. In all, it was a great experience but part of me was happy to land back in French Creek.
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Post by Ferryman on Oct 13, 2022 19:21:18 GMT -8
One of the safety limitations for the Coastal Class is to have 4 prime mover engines/generators available for transiting Active Pass.
The Coastal Class have one electric drive motor at each end, that turns their respective propeller. Mode 1 (one propeller turning) can be achieved with any two primer mover/generators running. However, in order to run Mode 2 (two propellers turning), there has to be a minimum of 3 prime mover/generators running. Typically they will sail all day long with 3 prime movers running. The fourth prime mover/generator is typically left turned off or in standby mode to quickly flash up and connect to the switchboard on short notice if one of the other prime movers has an issue. The fourth prime mover is also used to gain a bit more speed and to have full power availability during maneuvers in strong winds.
As for Active Pass, it's a matter of available redundancy if something were to happen to the generators at the same time as requiring mode 2 in Active Pass. As we all know, there's far less room for error while navigating Active Pass compared to navigating Boundary Pass. When you're running a diesel electric ship, you're always taking the power consumption and power availability into consideration. Otherwise if you don't, "poof!"...the ship may black out as a worst case scenario. Then it takes time to reset a number of breakers. Similar to blowing a circuit breaker at your house, except in this case you can lose propulsion. Therefore, if only 3 prime movers are available, then the decision is made to avoid Active Pass until the fourth prime mover is available again.
The Spirits also have a similar limitation, however I'm not totally familiar with their propulsion system.
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Post by Ferryman on Oct 10, 2022 17:09:05 GMT -8
What is the next role for the Queen of Alberni? What is BC Ferries future plans for her? Tomorrow afternoon she'll return home to Tsawwassen on Route 30 until her refit starts next month. The Renaissance will then head on to refit in Departure Bay
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Post by Ferryman on Oct 1, 2022 11:56:34 GMT -8
Tonight, you'll see the Coastal Inspiration and Coastal Celebration trade places for a few weeks. Inspiration will depart Duke Pt for Swartz Bay around 8:15pm, and then Celebration departs around midnight. It'll all performed by the one crew from Duke Pt. Route 30 isn't scheduled to sail the final round trip of the day on Saturday nights nor does it sail the first round trip on Sunday mornings with the off-peak schedule
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Post by Ferryman on Aug 25, 2022 11:47:23 GMT -8
Half of the Nanny is already broken down. See at 05:13 in this video Edit: Video was deleted. See attached image from 5:13... Attachments:
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Post by Ferryman on Aug 23, 2022 12:15:18 GMT -8
Is there any status update on three fast cats? Things have been quite quiet for a while now and I was wondering if there was any chance they will be used for service again or if they are doomed for the scrapper. Funny you ask, because just a couple of days ago someone posted a very recent photo of two of them on the BC Nautical History Facebook page. The photo shows the Explorer and Voyager tied up alongside in Malta. There was no sign of the Discovery in the photo. They look to be in pretty tough shape now, and it appears vandals have taken over. A few windows appear to be broken, and the bridge wings on both vessels appear to be badly damaged, as if they have rubbed up against each other. These boats sure get around considering their lack of use.
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Post by Ferryman on Jul 1, 2022 9:08:09 GMT -8
Are those Lomaiviti Princess V parts from Queen of Nanaimo or Queen of Burnaby? They would be from the Nanaimo. However the Mitsubishi bow thruster engine was from the Burnaby. The swap was done right after the Burnaby was retired, along with various other parts and pieces that were used to keep her going for another few years in the South Pacific
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Post by Ferryman on Jun 29, 2022 10:46:01 GMT -8
Thank you for posting this. Do you think the BC Maritime Museum would be interested in the Zodiac? Wonder how much it would cost to ship that back to BC. I keep trying to look at various places to see if I can find the ship wheel for sale but no luck so far. The Nanaimo had a brass bell too right? Wonder if we can find it somehow? Key namesake items were removed and preserved prior to the sale to Goundar Shipping. Items such as the bell, wheel, etc are at the head office in Victoria. In fact, I swear I could see it on display at the window of one of the top floor corner units of the Atrium, facing the intersection of Blanshard and Johnson. I don’t know for a fact if that was the wheel, however there is a ship’s wheel sitting up there. A new wheel was fabricated to replace the classic wheel, and even the airchime whistles were removed and replaced by a simple single tone whistle. One of the smaller bells that was originally located up on the port side bridge wing is now in the office at Long Harbour terminal . And the coat of arms now lives aboard the “Seahorse” tugboat anchored in Ganges. flic.kr/p/2cnbe1gI don’t think there’s any significance to the zodiac at this point though. From the pictures, it looks like the inflatable collar that runs around the outside of the hull has been removed
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