Galiano Trip

[Mike C]

Hmmmph. And I had to stay in the middle of nowhere for a measly extra 12 hours to "enjoy ourselves" (quote my mother). We ran out of electricity in our trailer, and that annoyed us all, because it meant that we could no longer use any RV-exclusive facilities. I tried to use it as an excuse to get out of there and onto Galiano for the next day, but no, we remained right where we parked our butts: Campsite #48, Monck Prov. Park.

Again, I would be happy to take part in a ferry-forum adventure to a local island (maybe Bowen or Gabriola or a "southern Gulf island")

[Ferryman]

Well, I suppose I'm the third one back...
I couldn't explain it any better than how Jordan and Doug did. I've got a few pics to go along with that story line, just to give those of you who weren't there, a bit of a visual of what went on today. So here I go....

After I had faught my way into Vancouver, and picked up Jordan, we arrived at Tsawwassen just 20 minutes before the 10th hour. We were delayed due to the New Westminster and Saanich leaving around the same time we were supposed to, and by the time they were finally all turned around, the "Sew Bick" (SOBC) was approaching fast. So we left 15 mins late. Once we got halfway across the Strait, Dan tells me he thought he just saw Mac. Sure enough two minutes later, Mac gets the Chief Steward to call Jordan, Dan, and Myself to the Chief Stewards office. As we started walking there, Karl phones me, to say he's on the Mayne Queen, and Graham and Scott are nowhere to be seen. Seconds later, we met up with Mac, and he introduced us to some of his friends, who just happened to be on their way to one of the Gulf Islands. We had a nice talk with them, but my stomach told me I needed some food, so off I went to the Cafeteria to purchase my traditional sticky bun. It wasn't too much longer after that, when Galiano travellers were advised to go to the bow to offload.

Once we got off the ship, we saw the Mayne Queen, with Karl aboard, exit Active Pass and waited just outside of the Pass for the Nanny to leave, so it could dock. Once the Mayne Queen docked, Karl was anxiously waited first in line at the bow to meet up with us.

Once we had our greetings and introductions, we headed for Bellhouse park. Great place to watch the Ferries. Just as we were arriving at the park, after about a 15 minute walk from Sturdies Bay, we noticed Mac was in a van that was being driven by a very kind BC Ferries worker, who drove him there to meet up with us. Anyways, we continued on, and Mac ended up finding a nice spot to enjoy the sun.

After watching the Vancouver and Saanich roll by....


...we then made the decision to 'hoof' it to the bluffs. After about 1/2 an hour of walking, Karl pointed out there was beach access. We were curious as to where it would lead us along the pass. So we went for it, and so we all walked along this narrow foot path for about 10 minutes, where it all of the sudden turned into really steep and tough terrain as we descended down a cliff to the beach along Active Pass. As Jordan said in his post, we got there just in time to watch the Spirits pass, in the pass.

I guess we stayed there for another hour or two, to watch as many ferries go through as possible. I took pictures, and recorded as many horns as possible. If we weren't taking pictures, we would be talking, or watch Dan jump around in the Ferry wake hitting the shore. Then around 3:00 or so, we started "hoof'n" it back to Sturdies Bay.

Once we got close to the Terminal, we found a nice little place that sold Ice Cream, where Dans father kindly offered to buy us each an Ice Cream, (Much appreciated, Dans Father).

Once we finnished, we finnished the last leg of the trip, which was only another 5 minutes, and we watched the Mayne and Bowen Queen maneover around each other, so the Bowen could dock. We then of course eventually boarded the Bowen Queen, and we had a nice sailing back to Tsawwassen.

[Ferryman]

Also, just to add, some of us were thinking about maybe going to Mayne Island next time, hopefully before the summer is over....

[Balfour]

I'd be up for it!!!

[Koastal Karl]

Well I just got back like 20 mins ago and I am probably the last to arrive home. After I left the group at Tsawwassen I waited and took the 7pm SOBC home. I was gonna take and had planned to take the 8pm Queen of Vancouver but she was running late and I decided to go back earlier. I did see someone being taken off the SOBC in a stretcher as there was a medical emergency on the sailing before. Only interesting thing going back. It was a good trip, but that walk up from the beack was a killer, lol! I would be up for a trip to Mayne Island as I havent been there in a few years and actually drove around. I think I will drive this next time, lol!

[Doug]

I have just started uploading my pictures...and have got about a page going at community.webshots.com/album/552056833OHviOS . There are plenty more to come tomorrow.

[Scott (Former Account)]

Awesome photo's, Doug..! ;D

[Doug]

Thanks. I got six more pages up now, and will be adding the last page or so later tonight.

[Doug]

Ok, all of my photos have been uploaded and can be found at the link above.

[Retrovision]

Thank you, all. Great pics!

[Ferryman]

Alright, finally finished uploading the majority of my pics, along with a few new Ferry horns. Sorry for there not being really any interior pics, but I figure Graham and Karl have done a good job at documenting those parts of these ships.

To make this convienient for everyone, I'm going to make different sections for people who like to power-scroll down pages, and people who like to take there time and enjoy the pictures.

For those of you who have alot of time on your hands, and like to view each Ferry individually, you may want to click on the following links.

Queen of Saanich:
photosbychris2006.fotopic.net/c1017410.html

Queen of Vancouver:
photosbychris2006.fotopic.net/c1017414.html

Queen of Nanaimo:
photosbychris2006.fotopic.net/c1017441.html

SOBC:
photosbychris2006.fotopic.net/c1017447.html

SOVI:
photosbychris2006.fotopic.net/c1017450.html

Mayne Queen:
photosbychris2006.fotopic.net/c1017454.html

Last but not least, Bowen Queen:
photosbychris2006.fotopic.net/c1017454.html

For those of you, who don't really care that much about seeing almost every single angle of a Ferry, you may want to click on the following link. This link is also good for people who want to see a few more pictures that had to do with the trip itself I suppose, other than the ferries.

photosbychris2006.fotopic.net/c1017462.html

All of those pictures, along with many other pictures, totalling approximately 1800, can viewed at the following webpage!

photosbychris2006.fotopic.net/

For you horn lovers out there, here are a few previews of what will be posted on the Ferry Horns of British Columbia sometime in the coming days, and each recording is available in two special formats. These were recorded from the beach we were at, that was situated along Active Pass.

Queen of Nanaimo (I give this one a two thumbs up, being the nicest sounding horn yet, for an old ship)
(WMA): ferrymaniac.sitesled.com/Audio/qnanny.wma
(RealPlayer): ferrymaniac.sitesled.com/Audio/qnan.rm

Queen of Saanich:
(WMA) ferrymaniac.sitesled.com/Audio/qsaa.wma
(RealPlayer) ferrymaniac.sitesled.com/Audio/qsa.rm

...and a pretty good taste of the Vancouvers worn out 3 tone special:
(WMA): ferrymaniac.sitesled.com/Audio/qvan.wma
(RealPlayer): ferrymaniac.sitesled.com/Audio/qvanc.rm

If any of you would like any recordings for personal use to add to their collections, don't be afraid to send me a PM!

Thank you for you're time, and have a great Sunday evening!

Kindest Regards,
-Chris.

[Retrovision]

Thanks a lot for those, Chris. Nicely organized; user-friendly.

[Koastal Karl]

My photos from Friday are up at community.webshots.com/album/552121253PfDxex/0

Too many photos so I dident post every single photo as we basically got all the same shots, lol!

[Mac Write]

I left Saturday for the Island so mine won't be up for a week. Editng over VNC won't work that well for adjustments.