John H
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Post by John H on Nov 7, 2017 18:08:23 GMT -8
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John H
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Post by John H on Oct 9, 2017 7:58:01 GMT -8
Thanks for the link! Is that fare estimate correct? 199$ per foot passenger? That's just the current fare for the trip on board the NIMPKISH during the "regular fare" season. Wouldn't be surprised if the price goes up.
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John H
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Post by John H on Sept 26, 2017 19:47:42 GMT -8
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John H
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Post by John H on Sept 7, 2017 14:27:27 GMT -8
I'm assuming the journey to BC will coincide with the eastward journey of the Spirit of British Columbia. I wonder if/where they will pass each other? I would be neat if it was the Panama Canal, but if the Northern Sea Wolf is still in Greece, I doubt that will be happening. Probably will be in the mid-Atlantic... in the middle of hurricane season.
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John H
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Post by John H on Aug 28, 2017 21:19:17 GMT -8
Hmm, for a vessel called Salish Eagle, there sure are a lot of Orcas to see... In fact, that picture is in the exact same spot on the Salish Orca. I know these are standardized vessels, but why not give them a little more variety?
Another thing about that photo (I had dinner beside it this evening), it's credited to "Destiation British Columbia" which is an error you think they might have caught before they put it up. I agree with you though, more variety would be nice. Why not feature some local photography, of eagles for instance, instead of some of the standard corporate fare. Today was my second trip on the Salish Eagle and there were some "improvements" from the maiden voyage, most of which have been mentioned here already: the lowering of the sounds for almost everything, the doors seem to be working better, etc. One elevator was out in the morning, but was fixed in the afternoon. An elevator truck boarded at Tsawwassen so maybe he was there to fix it. Much to the disappointment of some of the kids (and some other customers), they had the "summer menu" - chili dogs, chili, soup, pulled pork sandwich, Caesar salad with chicken, seafood pot pie, and that might be it. The ferry was busy but not close to full. The morning trip from Tsawwassen said 70% for vehicle capacity before we left the house. It was a bit crowded in the lounge and outdoor areas but not uncomfortable.
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John H
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Post by John H on Aug 28, 2017 20:58:27 GMT -8
Came across the V2V Empress today while heading out on a daytrip to Mayne Island. Didn't seem to be going too fast, then I noticed the tug ahead of it - heading for repairs in Victoria. It's currently in Victoria's Upper Harbour, just off Point Hope Maritime.
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John H
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Post by John H on Aug 24, 2017 22:13:39 GMT -8
A question for our northern ferry travellers. How early ahead-of-time do you need to reserve for the northern routes in the summertime, specifically the Inside Passage and Haida Gwaii. Do they tend to ever sell out? Is this something that needs to be planned months ahead of time or is a week or two sufficient? The reservation system on BC Ferries for the northern routes seems pretty old-school compared to the southern routes. Have forum-members who use the northern routes find that the reservation system works quite well?
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John H
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Post by John H on Aug 15, 2017 21:15:43 GMT -8
Yes it is bad timing. I noticed recently that they've purchased ads on the sides of the buses in Vancouver. That will be wasted.
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Post by John H on Jul 26, 2017 22:10:51 GMT -8
This question isn't specific to one ferry, and is based on something I saw on Monday morning on the QUEEN OF ALBERNI.
This past Monday, I was on the 5:15 AM ferry from Tsawwassen to Duke Point. I think it's the first time I've done that; maybe the last. I got to the terminal at 4:30, and there was a mile long lineup before the toll booths. Amazing how many people get up that early! It took 30 minutes to get to the toll booths, so I paid 15 minutes before sailing time. How do they deal with reservations in those circumstances? You're required to be there at least 30 minutes before sailing time, but if the lineup before the toll booth is 30 minutes long, you'd need to get there by 4:15 in the morning. I don't think there were that many reserves, except for the overheights. Anyways, that's not my question.
On the QUEEN OF ALBERNI, they loaded an old style decommissioned ambulance van onto the upper deck and it was parked in the large open-air part of the deck at the stern because the car deck was pretty full. About 10 or 15 minutes after we sailed, I noticed some crew members measuring the height of the van, and it was pretty clear that the van would not be able to fit under the "ceiling" to unload once we got to Duke Point. As I drove off, I noticed the van doing a U-turn to face the other way.
My question is, what would BC Ferries do in this circumstance? It's pretty much their fault the van got there. Would they load the ferry, then turn it around to let that one car off before heading back to Tsawwassen? Or would they take them all the way back and re-load them at Tsawwassen, wasting half their day? I wasn't able to stick around and watch, and didn't have access to a computer to see if there were any delays that day, but I'm wondering if anyone on here knows what kind of procedure they'd follow in this kind of circumstance.
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Post by John H on Jul 13, 2017 21:54:18 GMT -8
Came across a news article on CBC this evening related to the George Massey Tunnel replacement debate. The outgoing Liberal government has been strongly in support of replacing the 4-land tunnel with a 10-lane bridge. Almost all the mayors in the area are against the idea, with the exception of Delta mayor Lois Jackson. The fear is that traffic congestion will simply move up Highway 99 to the 4-lane Oak Street Bridge. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/longshoreman-traffic-congestion-1.4204415An alternative idea has been put out there by the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 400, about creating a 'short-sea shipping' network around the Lower Mainland. Instead of having trucks moving all the containers from the 4 container ports (2 on south shore of Burrard Inlet, and 2 on the south Fraser: one on Fraser River and one on Roberts Bank), some containers would be transferred to barges and shipped to smaller, more local, unloading terminals distributed around the region. In theory, this would reduce truck traffic through bottlenecks like bridges and tunnels. I'm skeptical that this would solve the problem of the George Massey Tunnel in itself. But I think it's an interesting idea. Our network of waterways are not used nearly as much as they could be. If we invested more in taking advantage of the inlets and rivers all around us to transport goods and people, we'd probably have less congestion on our roads - but more on the water!
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Post by John H on Jun 21, 2017 18:31:31 GMT -8
This morning I was on the maiden voyage of the SALISH EAGLE from Tsawwassen to Long Harbour, and then back with a stop at Otter Bay. Took my 5-year old son along for the cruise, and enjoyed meeting up with Scott and Michael H. Thanks to Scott for using his connections to get us a bridge visit and thanks to the BC Ferries employees and crew members who happily accommodated us. The cashier on board is now trained on how to sell a return ticket to ferry fans who don't want to get off, haha.
It was perfect weather, and being a Wednesday before the full onset of the summer crowds, there wasn't a huge vehicle or passenger load. They used the lower car deck just once: while loading at Long Harbour - probably more for the practise than the actual need to. The ferry is very nice. I'm not sure how it will handle full loads on a rainy day, but there is a nice variety of seating inside and outside. Lots of windows, lots of outdoor space. Quite a smooth ride; I didn't notice a lot of vibration however there was a bit of movement from the waves when out in Georgia Strait.
I'll leave it up to Scott and Michael to fill in more details and provide some professional photographs!
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Post by John H on Jun 20, 2017 22:11:14 GMT -8
Following up on the Winnipeg - Churchill track story. It looks like there's some differences of opinions on how fast the response is to this problem. Omnitrax, which owns the track, is taking its time assessing the damage. Until they do that, neither the provincial or federal governments will commit to helping with repairs. Omnitrax is making noises that it can't afford to fix the damage on its own. Meanwhile residents in Churchill are stranded and feeling ignored. A couple of guys on motorbikes arrived in Churchill, having travelled the entire stretch of the line on their bikes. They say it's not as bad as people have been led to believe - keep in mind they're not experts. News story: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/churchill-motorcyle-riders-rail-line-1.4170059I know we live in a different world than 100 years ago, with insurance and a lot more regulations and red tape and environmental and safety concerns. But I think 100 years ago, they'd have been working on this for a month already and might have had it fixed by now. Instead we have different levels of government, track that's owned by an American company, rented by a Canadian crown corporation (the passenger service) and no doubt many other interests waiting on each other. The fact this closure only affects a few small relatively unimportant communities certainly contributes to this not being a priority for anyone. Disappointing that the company that "owns" the track is happy to run it until there's a problem with it.
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John H
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Post by John H on Jun 9, 2017 22:15:45 GMT -8
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Post by John H on Jun 9, 2017 22:07:05 GMT -8
Have to say, it really seems weird that they would use a gallery deck- as they are apparently doing one one side- on a vessel that small. I imagine that they've crunched the numbers and have found it more economical than just making the vessel longer, but it seems to me that loading the small number of vehicles that will fit beneath that deck might be awkward and time consuming. Time will tell. From what people are saying, I think there's going to be a passenger lounge under the gallery deck, and not space for parking cars. And hopefully passengers will have access to the outside of the upper deck where there looks to be some sort of semi-sheltered open-air area.
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Post by John H on Jun 9, 2017 20:58:21 GMT -8
Due to Highway 1 being closed west of Revelstoke for the next day or two, it looks like a lot of people are discovering Highway 23:
From Twitter:
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Post by John H on Jun 1, 2017 19:11:49 GMT -8
We're getting close to the halfway point of 2017 and I haven't heard anything more of these issues since they made a splash in the news late last year.
Since the SALISH ORCA is now in service some of you will probably know the answer to this question: Are they forcing people out of the "enclosed" car deck during the sailing? I noticed in Curtis' video (in the SALISH ORCA thread) that there are large portholes that were open (and could be closed) - is that enough to make it a non-enclosed deck?
Just wondering if we'll be hearing more about this or was it just a slow news day when it came out?
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Post by John H on May 5, 2017 20:45:39 GMT -8
Old news, but on Monday I was at Tsawwassen and got this side-by-side picture with the SALISH ORCA and the QUEEN OF ALBERNI. The ALBERNI is 32 meters longer, which isn't obvious in this photo.
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Post by John H on Apr 15, 2017 20:49:22 GMT -8
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Post by John H on Apr 4, 2017 18:29:30 GMT -8
I am looking at reservations page on BC Ferries for the Summer schedule on Southern Gulf Island to Tsawwassen it seems like Queen of Nanaimo will be the main boat on the route with her home port being Long Harbour and Salish Eagle will fill the Bowen Queen job on route 9A. The schedule is quite different than different years. The "9A" route you refer to was only in operation a few days a week. With the new summer schedule, both vessels will be in operation every day. The Long Harbour based vessel (QUEEN OF NANAIMO) still seems to have the longer hours though. Like Neil said, this will be a good summer to take a trip to the islands with all the extra capacity. I wonder if they will crew the QUEEN OF NANAIMO at full capacity, or at a lower level?
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Post by John H on Mar 29, 2017 18:59:35 GMT -8
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Post by John H on Mar 24, 2017 17:07:39 GMT -8
If Salish Eagle enters service in late June, basically in time for the peak summer season, does anyone have an inkling of an idea of which vessel it will be paired with on Route 9? I'm curious if they are running Nanaimo for one last summer, or if it will be decommissioned as soon as Eagle takes over. It would be really cool to have both Salish Eagle and Queen of Nanaimo running Route 9 this summer - new and old working together. Beyond that "cool factor" for us ferry nerds, it would also be more practical from a capacity standpoint. If they pair Eagle with Bowen Queen, that's going to be a reduction in normal capacity during the busiest season of the year, but I have this feeling that is what they are going to do, at least until Salish Raven comes online, but that's not likely to be until autumn, right? FYI, I just looked at the Fleet Page on BC Ferries, and Ferries has applied the same "funny math" to Orca as they did with the rest of the fleet; Salish class vessels now have an AEQ of 138 vs the original 145. Nanaimo's "new capacity" is 164, so if you were to go by BCF's numbers, that will be 26 fewer cars per sailing if Eagle replaces Nanaimo this summer, as opposed to being paired with the older vessel. You have to wonder if the BOWEN QUEEN could handle the summer schedule they have posted now. Both the Tsawwassen and Saltspring-based vessels seem to share an equal workload - the Saltspring-based vessel being out longer on a typical weekday, but they take turns visiting different islands vs. direct sailings. Also I wonder if the BOWEN QUEEN could keep to the schedule, but it looks like the SALISH EAGLE isn't much faster. Interesting how on the summer schedule, the departures and arrivals are down to the exact minute. For example, the direct trip from Tsawwassen to Long Harbour on a lot of the trips is exactly 1 hr and 23 minutes. The BOWEN QUEEN was usually scheduled 1 hr and 30 minutes for the same trip in past summers.
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Post by John H on Feb 8, 2017 21:24:05 GMT -8
Still in the "thinking of maybe going" stage, but any information you could share about visiting these relatively remote islands would be helpful for future reference by any of the forum's readers.
Cormorant Island (Alert Bay) seems like quite a small island, and I'm not sure how much of it is open to visitors. I believe it's not as "restricted" as Kuper Island. I was wondering if the town and attractions are walkable from the ferry terminal? I've heard that the ferry can fill up quite easily on certain sailings, plus it's cheaper not to take a car!
Malcolm Island is larger, and I'd probably want to take a car to see more of the island if I was just going for the day. Are there any must-see places in Sointula?
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Post by John H on Jan 21, 2017 23:24:01 GMT -8
Thanks for all the time and energy you've put into the forum Jordan! All the best on your adventures - keep us updated.
New Zealand and Fiji have a fairly close relationship (economically/politically)... maybe you can catch a cheap flight across the water and visit some of our old boats!
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Post by John H on Dec 20, 2016 21:55:19 GMT -8
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Post by John H on Dec 20, 2016 21:42:50 GMT -8
I had always thought the Rule applied to All Vehicle decks including the upper car deck. The one way maybe to control it would be to sweep the car deck 15 min after cars have fully loaded and make sure everyone is out of vehichles. And lock the car deck doors until 30 min before docking, if that's even possible or u will get people who will refuse to leave their vehicles especially if they have animals...eg Motorhomes or travel trailers. There's no way they can enforce people getting out of their cars and going up to the passenger deck. They're going to have to assume that there will be a few that will get away with it, despite the rules. People in motorhomes or truck cabs could easily stay out of view of any sweep by crew members. And if you lock the car deck doors, how will they get out in the event of an emergency?
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