What is your most memorable trip?

[Balfour]

Trips where you just had a good time, travelled on numerous ferries in one trip, biked on, ANYTHING!

[Doug]

Well, I'd have to say every one. ;D But the ones I liked in particular are the ones on sunny days. The ones going to Vancouver Island and coming back in one late weekend of last June were really nice ones...it was sunny.

I was on Tsawwssen-Duke Point. Don't know if anyone remembers, but the Queen of New Westminster broke down, just before its 1:15 sailing to Nanaimo...so we ended up getting on the Vancouver at like 8:15...long day at Tsawwassen. It was nice crossing the Strait, three ships around heading in the same direction and at the same speeds. There was us, a container ship not to far off the stern and one of Alaska State Ferries ships heading north from Bellingham. It was dark soon after leaving. The skies were clear on that one and it was a Friday, so that explains the ASF.

Coming back was really nice. The New Westminster was fixed and was back in service. Got some really nice views of her making a big U-turn between Gabriola Island and Duke Point preparing to dock. We were on her within 10 minutes of arrival at the terminal and were leaving very soon. This was even sunnier, but it was in the afternoon so what do you expect. While we were still in dock we could see the Coquitlam steaming out of Departure Bay headed to the Mainland. It was fairly hazy in the Fraser Valley that day, so you couldn't see UBC of Vancouver of nothing like that, but you could see the Coquitlam and Oak Bay passing each other just off Bowen Island, probably nearly 40 km from us. Really faint though.

[kylefossett]

i might remember that day. was it 2 summers ago. if it was they were placing people on the bowen queen to saltspring and then they crossed over to crofton. i was on the 4pm sailing to swartz bay and was really happy i had a reservation. was talking to people at tsawwassen who had been there all day. it is definatley worth the extra cash for a reservation.

[Balfour]

The most recent trip of memory was the one where I met Gordon Campbell on the Queen of Abestos, er Esquimalt but one of great memory that I will start with was in the summer of 2001 when I was almost 14.

Me, my dad, and my bro, decided to do a circle trip like that CirclePac thing that BCF offers in the summer, but reversed. We hopped on a midday sailing to Departure Bay on the Oaky and camped at Rathtrevor Beach near parksville for a few days with some friends. After that we stayed at Miracle Beach for afew days. Then we caught the 10AM sailing out of little river. I remember having a sunshine Breakfast on the Queen of Burnaby, just when it was taking off and man, it was like an earthquake on board the ship, my eggs were bouncing around like mad. I also remember the lemony tasting Hollandaise Sauce they put on the eggs. When got into Powell River we explored a bit, drove up to Lund, and back to PR. PR Queen Kid will be glad to here that he lives in a very nice little town. That night we camped at Saltery bay Provincial Park. The next morning we headed home. We hopped on the Queen of Tsawassen, where I had a Sunshine Breakfast. One real highlight of that trip was walking around on the outer decks and seeing probably the prettiest route in the BCF system. We ended off by driving down Highway 101, and going back to Horeseshoe bay on the Queen of Slurry, er Surrey. This is the trip where I began to develope my passion for BC ferries.

[Ian]

I took the bowen queen from tswwassen to long harbour with a stop at sturdies bay. When we were leaving sturdies bay the SOBC and SOVI and Mayne queen were going through and the little bowen queen got rocked really really hard, really big rolling waves.

One time I was on the Queen of Alberni crossing the straight and I saw the cruise ship Infinity.

Me and my dad drove to tswwassen, parked, and took are bikes on. From Swartz bay we biked to oak bay along the lockside trail to see some reletives. We went by the empress on the way and i had to direct my dad to oak bay because he doesn't know victoria like i do. We went down farefield to foul bay road and then went down cadboro bay road to beach drive. We had to stop at the ross bay super value.

I do not know why i just described my bike ride in victoria.

[Ferryman]

My most momorable trip was back in 99 when I had to go down to Seattle for a funeral. So we caught the 5:15am from Duke Point and obviously it was Alberni. There was a huge amount of trucks that were going to board the ship too. When we were about to go the ship was leaning to the left the whole trip, seeming her bottom car deck has no galley deck on the bottom car deck they're able to put trucks on either side and the middle of her. So they had too many trucks on the left side of the ship. Which made it really awkward to walk around especially when we got out on to the straight and the winds were blowing. That sure made me want to stand on the right side of the ship the whole time just in case she capsized Then on the turn coming into Tsawwassen was a left turn so the ship leaned to the left even more as we were lining up for the dock. It sure was an interesting trip but I'm glad nothing bad happened that morning. ;D

[Balfour]

Another Fun trip was on the Vicroria day weekend last year.

For those of you who are in the scouting program, you might know about the big camps that take place throughout this corner of the province, such as Mardis Gras, Rovent, or Skeeter.

two of my fellow Venturers and myself decided to ride our bikes to Skeeter at Camp Callet just East of the Nanaimo City Limit. We met in Edgemont Village just east of the Capilano River, really early in the morning. We rode to Horeshoe Bay, and got there woth about half an hour to spare before the Queen Of Coquitam's 10:30 Sailing to DB. This was my first time on the new look Coq, and I quite liked the inside, and the romier sundeck.

On the way back, we got on a 75% full Queen of Coquitlam. We decided to have some fun with our advisor, now I had a box of DQ fries in my backpack so we decided to dump them in his Toyota Rav4, but he never reacted. but still it was a fun trip

[queenofthenorth]

My most memorable trip is a little long however I will do my most Errie trip.

In the Early 1990's I used to go to Richmond alot since I had a place to stay. One such trip I decided to Take a ride on the ferry to Swartz Bay.

I boarded the mv Queen of Victoria and we departed on time. As We aproached Gosip shoel, it was so foggy that you could not see the front of the ferry. I remaind out side and could hear the Geogian Point Foghorn and we made the turn into Active Pass. When we passed the Tsawwasen bound ferry it was freeky because you could not see her (no Idea which one it was) but you could hear her engines as we passed. That and hearing the all difern't kinds of horns throughout the voyage made it the most Spooky sailing I can remember.


My most memorable trip would have to be the first time I sailed on the Queen of The North from Tsawwassen to Port Hardy, as we sailed from Tsawwassen almost into Departure Bay then up to Ballenas Island, and between Denman and Hornby up to the Discovery passsage. We Passed 3 huge cruise ships and overtook the Yorktown Clipper. Got into Port Hardy about half a hour early. ;D

[Koastal Karl]

These are my most memorable trips, during big windstorms. I have already posted this in the storms section of this board but I will post it here.


I remember a few times being on the ferry when it has been real rough. I remember one weekend last December going across on the Spirit of Vancouver Island to Tsawwassen it was quite rough, I think the return trip was a bit more rougher, we arrived at Tsawwassen for the 2:00 ferry on a Sunday afternoon and we were informed it was cancelled cause of the high winds, so we waited for the 3:00 ferry which was the larger Spirit of British Columbia, sitting in the van at Tsawwassen with the wind howling, we watched as the Spirit came in, it took like 30 minautes just to dock, at one point it was sideways across berth 3 4 and 5, trying to dock, the Coquitlam which I guess was replacing New West on the Duke Point run, was waiting out in the straight to dock, she came in, sideways, like the spirit, it was something to see them trying to dock in the wind, by this time they announced all ferries were on standby, about 3:30 we are waiting hoping to hear news that they get going again, we hear over the announcements that everyone bound for Duke Point return to vehicles for loading. We're sitting there thinking why is the smaller Queen of Coquitlam able to go and the larger Spirit of British Columbia is still cancelled? So anyway, a few minuates later they say if there is any passengers wanting to switch over to the Duke Point ferry who were going to Swartz Bay, to just pull out of line a make way to the to berth 3. Luckily we were on the outside lane. So we get on the Coquitlam, they tell everyone to stay seated as we leave the dock. We are pulling out and the ship is going up and down all you see is sky then water, some passengers were freaking out. But it seemed to calm down a bit heading to Duke Point, still fairly windy when we reached duke point. But halfway through the voyage we find out the Spirit left at 5:00. So then we had to drive down from duke point to Victoria with the power out until we reached Duncan. It was a quite a trip. For me it was kind of exciting!!
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Also another time on the Spirit of Vancouver island going to Tsawwassen on a Sunday afternoon in the winter, I think I had gone over for the afternoon, for something. I was deciding at the time whether go or not when I got out there, they said keep your reciept in case they had to cancel, but I got on and we left and just out around Beaver Point Saltpring, it got quite rough, and that was just through the gulf islands. Then we rounded the last turn in active pass I remember looking out and thinking, "oh my god" This is crazy. Big white caps out on the Straight, got a ways out there and the ship started to shake as we started hitting the swells, rolling up and down, it was crazy, people reamained seated till we docked. And as I can remember the return trip in the evening on the Spirit of Vancouver Island, that was still a pretty rough trip, she was the only ship running on the Swartz Bay run cause I think one of the smaller queens was replacing the other spirit which was in refit. So this was definately and overcrowded ferry, every possible floor space was taken, going back the ship was up and down up and down, course it was dark though you couldent see anything. To windy to go out on deck, could hardly walk around it was so rough as there telling people to stay seated, but not me, but I saw a few people who looked seasick. But as I remember standing mid ship by the cafateria and I could feel this cool breeze, later did I realize when we docked at Swartz Bay one of side windows in the forward lounge had blown out, and was all boarded up. Another wild trip on a BC Ferry!!

Also nice warm calm sunny days being on the ferries can make for an awesome trip!

[Ian]

i have never expierienced a trip like that, although on my trip on royal caribbean's SEREDNADE OF THE SEAS to alaska. We went through a foggy patch so i went up to deck twelve where it was still sunny and i was no more than 200 feet away from the mast where the horn is located. Anyway it ended up sounding and freaked the living bejesus out of me.

[queenofthenorth]

Yep, I have been on the ferries quite often after a stormy day and seen some "Plugs" in the windows. I remember once on the Queen of Oak Bay they had a wooden plug replacing one of the front windows at the front end.

Sometimes days after a major storm they still have sick bags laying around the ship waiting for the next storm.

I would not want to be sitting in front of or beside a window when it breaks. What breaks the window is not the waves hitting it, rather it is the Shake and bumps and motion of the vessle as it plows through the waves.

Speaking of Cruise ships and storms, did you see the news report a couple years ago about the Radiance of The seas rescuing 3 fisherman from thier sinking fishing boat off of the Queen Charllotes. Man the seas were rough that day!

[Koastal Karl]

I was on the SOVI once coming back from Tsawwassen and one of the windows near the forward lounge on the port side was boared up. This was during a big windstorm and it was really rough.

[Ferryman]

When the window at the front end broke, was it at the Vancouver end of her back in summer of 03? because I remember being on Oak Bay on one of many trips that summer when we were moving and seeing a piece of plywood screwed onto one of the windows.

Queen said:

Yep, I have been on the ferries quite often after a stormy day and seen some "Plugs" in the windows. I remember once on the Queen of Oak Bay they had a wooden plug replacing one of the front windows at the front end.

Sometimes days after a major storm they still have sick bags laying around the ship waiting for the next storm.

I would not want to be sitting in front of or beside a window when it breaks. What breaks the window is not the waves hitting it, rather it is the Shake and bumps and motion of the vessle as it plows through the waves.

Speaking of Cruise ships and storms, did you see the news report a couple years ago about the Radiance of The seas rescuing 3 fisherman from thier sinking fishing boat off of the Queen Charllotes. Man the seas were rough that day!

[Balfour]

I generally have good luck with weather on ferries, but one particular trip to Saltspring was wet.

My Friend and I decided to ride our bikes to Tsawassen and meet some other Friends with our "Support Vehicle" It was nice and overcast until we got there.

We watched the SOBC leave the terminal for Swartz Bay on her 11:00 run, and soon after it started to rain. We went to one of the buildings to wait for the Nanny to get in. By the time she got there it was a monsoon, thankfully they decided to dock in Berth 3 which was covered by an upper deck ramp, but that still didn't keep us dry, for we had to ride to the berth from another building. Just that got us from being dry to being soaking wet.

The Voyage featured me doing my tradition of buying a bacon burger and coke, and then standing in that covered outside deck on Deck 4 with the Queen of Vancouver following us for the entire voyage, through the active pass until we turned for Long Harbour, to face a wet ride to our place that we rented for the week just overlooking Ganges Harbour.

...Good Times!

[Doug]

I also quite enjoyed the trip on the Inside Passage this summer.

[clay]

My most memorable B.C.F. trip????Had to be a trip on the Queen of Prince Rupert, coming down to Nanaimo Christmas 1979 from Rupert. Holy macaroni's, was it rough. The waves were crashing over the bow and breaking on the forward lounge windows. I remember EVERYONE was seasick. People were in and out of the can like stink on a monkey, which makes no sense whatsoever, but I'm pretty gunned right now, so you'll forgive me if I'm at a loss for adjectives, or verbs, or nouns, or whatever. I was, like ,11, and totally terrified, because not only was it super rough, but it was in the middle of the night, too. Really, it was harshly intense. Even still, though, I remember people were partying in the bar, dancing to Bony M's hit Rasputin. Ahh, those were the days. Anyone who wants to check out a REAL B.C. Ferries trip should do Prince Rupert-Skidegate or Prince Rupert-Port Hardy in the dead of winter. Trust me, if you hit it right during a major storm, you'll remember it forever.