MV Coho

[Kam]

Well, looks to me like she is SOLAS 1974

[Low Light Mike]

Photos taken by my colleague Leif, in January 2010.

Looking back at the USA



Under the bridge-wing, looking back at the USA.



Looking at Vancouver Island. And looking at Phil Spaulding's signature design.



Approaching Victoria.

[Scott (Former Account)]

Donella, Karl and I were touring aboard the Coho this afternoon in the Inner Harbour.



The crew was extremely accommodating and were happy to answer any questions we posed to them.





We learned that since her last refit, her steering gear was replaced with ones from the former Queen of Sidney. It great knowing that part of the Sidney still lives on in another original Spaulding.



As many know, the Coho is impeccably maintained and is likely to be the best maintained ship on this coast.



I know this tour has piqued our interest in doing a roundtrip aboard her this summer!

---

More photos should be uploaded in the coming days...

[Kam]

On our way back from the US today, the Coho was competely full, and even left one car behind.

Those guys can sure shoe horn em' in!

Full size here: www.flickr.com/photos/kams_world/sets/72157605647043884/





Now that's a tight fit!




A few more from the trip down and back

[Koastal Karl]

I guess I will post this here as I cant seem to find just Coho thread! I do have photos but will be posted to Facebook. Me and my g/f took a trip over to Port Angeles yesterday. We took the 3:00pm sailing from Victoria and returned on the 9:30pm sailing from Port Angeles. The weather was great but a little cooler in Port Angeles. Always seems to have a bit of wind over there. We never had any problems with Customs as we werent going over and coming right back! I noticed when you disembark the Coho as a foot passenger they do another check like Immagration or something cause we did go through Customs in Victoria. They kind of questioned us alot in Port Angeles when we said we had just come over for the afternoon but there wasent any problems and we went away laughing seeing we were the last off the boat too and they wondered why. I said I was in washroom, lol!

Have any of you Washington folks heard of Microwavable Cheeseburgers??? I asked the guy in the Cafeteria on the Coho about the Cheeseburgers they listed and they said they were just Microwavable ones and I thought wow, that is kinda odd and gross, and who would do that?? lol. We did try the Pizza slices they had and those werent bad, the soft serve ice cream was good too. I wonder if that Breakfast Sandwich they list on there is Microwavable too, lol!

But anyways the good ol Coho! So nice to be on a ship that reminds me of the Queen of Tsawwasen. She was rolling fairly good as we got closer to Port Angeles but she always seems to roll no matter what. On both the Coho and at the Port Angeles terminal they have something like the Cumberland does where they show photos of the Coho and her in her early days and even building the Coho too. Port Angeles terminal is nothing exciting. Just reminds me of like a big warehouse the holding area for footsies. I also notice when you buy your ticket you could also buy a return ticket at the same time.

Coming back was the 9:30pm sailing which was nice cause I have never travelled on the Coho at night and it was dusk when we got on and we had a nice sunset and it was totally clear and the moon was shining bright! Awesome evening. We sat in the forward lounge for a bit. Those seats are pretty comfortable and it was neat cause unlike the BC Ferries they dim the lights in the forward lounge they only had like one on and a few on near the back of the lounge. I think the reason why is they dont have window covers for the forward lounge so they dim the lights cause there is only really one sailing she does that is at night and only during the summer too. As we came into Victoria we went out on deck to take photos the Oosterdam, Sapphire Princess and Norwegian Pearl which were docked at Ogden Point. There werent alot of foot passengers coming back so we were able to get through customs with no problem.

I look forward to taking the Coho again when I go down to Port Townsend for the Chetzemoka sailing. I will be driving too so I will get to see the Car Deck again as it is closed while underway.

[BreannaF]

Thanks for the very descriptive review. It's stories like this that keep this forum interesting.

Jul 25, 2010 8:40:18 GMT -8 Koastal Karl said:

We never had any problems with Customs as we weren't going over and coming right back! I noticed when you disembark the Coho as a foot passenger they do another check like Immigration or something cause we did go through Customs in Victoria. They kind of questioned us a lot in Port Angeles when we said we had just come over for the afternoon but there wasn't any problems and we went away laughing seeing we were the last off the boat too and they wondered why.

Just for those who are interested, the Immigration part of the procedure (making sure papers are in order and "Why are you coming to the US?") is taken care of in Victoria. The person on the Port Angeles side is generally dealing with the Customs part of procedure ("Anything to declare?" and "What kind of contraband are you bringing in?") , although he is surely also keeping an eye out for signs of terrorists, etc. too.

[Freeland]

Subject......Microwaveable Cheese Burgers.

Back in 1967 I visited a Great Aunt in Newberg Oregon. She had a Microwave and her son
own the Dairy Queen in Newberg. She brought out of the freezer or refrigerator four BBQ hamburger patties and stuck them in her Microwave. I was rather bugged eye when
she brought them out of Microwave and put them on hamburger bun. They were pretty good ! I thought my Great Aunt was way ahead of the time, having Microwave in her kitchen.

About five years later we finally broke down and bought a Microwave. I think my Mother
had a browning plate for browning NY steaks. It seem to work, but the steaks still looked
funny.

Emory on Whidbey

[Northern Exploration]

Jul 25, 2010 17:49:23 GMT -8 Freeland said:

Subject......Microwaveable Cheese Burgers.

Back in 1967 I visited a Great Aunt in Newberg Oregon. She had a Microwave and her son
own the Dairy Queen in Newberg. She brought out of the freezer or refrigerator four BBQ hamburger patties and stuck them in her Microwave. I was rather bugged eye when
she brought them out of Microwave and put them on hamburger bun. They were pretty good ! I thought my Great Aunt was way ahead of the time, having Microwave in her kitchen.

About five years later we finally broke down and bought a Microwave. I think my Mother
had a browning plate for browning NY steaks. It seem to work, but the steaks still looked
funny.

Emory on Whidbey

I certainly avoided food on the Coho whenever possible. Coffee and a chocolate bar are all I think I have ever consumed. There is (or was) a great 50's style diner just east of Port Angeles we always seemed to aim for. Can't remember the town off the top of my head.

However, let me make one comment about nuked burgers. When you have nice and thick burgers and you cook them on the bbq until they are just cooked through to the appropriate temp... and they have been well spiced and have a bbq sauce on them to keep moist...they can be nuked very nicely the next day to make very tasty patty melts.

Unknown to many customers, many restaurant items are precooked. From burgers that are just thrown on the grill to rewarm, to pastas that are half cooked, and all sorts of items, are partially cooked or precooked. If done right you don't even know.

A bad example is airplane food. Banquet foods as well are precooked (sometimes why there is high incidents of food poisoning at badly done ones where the food isn't kept either cold or hot but warm too long). If you have steak at a wedding or banquet, it was grilled a few hours ago to rare and warmed to medium rare to medium. Many have sauces on them to help disguise things. While not in banquet volume, there is even a way to precook risotto to a certain point to cut in half the normal 35 to 40 minutes propper cooking time.

This food moment was NOT brought to you by Campbells mmm mmmm good. Who is a supplier to restaurants of precooked items such as pastas and sauces, that you heat and serve.

[FNS]

While we are in this subject of food for a moment on this thread, I should share my memories of the food service on the Mukilteo run aboard the RHODODENDRON. Her galley was simple and manageable by one attendant. The most common hot item was the hot dog. The galley lady would cut the wieners down the length of them like a book and would put them on the grill. She would do the flip side and place the buns on the grill as well. Then, the hot dogs would be handed to us and down our own hatches (mouths).

This was the same aboard the ILLAHEE before her steeling.

Now, let's go back and write more delightful postings of the good ship MV COHO to be digested by eager readers on this forum!

This is getting yummy!! ;D

[Koastal Karl]

Another thing about the Coho I was wondering is I saw dogs up on the passenger deck and inside areas. Are dogs allowed up there??? Cause I know you cant access the car deck during the crossing and I think these might of been walk ons too!

[Northern Exploration]

Frozen burgers on a BBQ are a recipe for troubles down below, and I don't mean Australia. Unless they are very thin burgers like the chain restaurants, the outside gets overdone before the middle is thawed and cooked.

I won't name names but you would be taken aback if you knew what restaurants buy and serve precooked menu items. Many are known as "better" quality ones. Anything reasonable that saves labour and lowers overhead.

As far as cooked from scratch in the restaurant, many precook as much as they get away with. Veggies are preblanched to cut final cooking time. Pastas undercooked and then chilled in ice water so when finally cooked they take minutes instead of tens of minutes. I love to gourmet cook and have learned a lot of shortcuts to making fine meals easier to get on the table without sacrificing quality.

Back to topic. I am pretty sure I am have been on the Coho 6 times. I do know on every one of the crossings that she has done that signature roll. I wonder if stabilizers would counteract that. Seems the current in the Strait gets the motion going. In fact one of the two wildest short ferry rides I have had is on the Coho. At one point the captain announced we might not dock for a while and a deckhand said they were considering and turning westward into the waves for a period of time.

[Retrovision]

From: www.vancouversun.com/news/thewest/rescued+after+falling+Coho+into+Inner+Harbour/3349547/story.html

Man rescued after falling off Coho into Inner Harbour


The Victoria Symphony Orchestra wasn’t the only thing making a splash in the Inner Harbour on Sunday.

A man was rescued after falling off the MV Coho on Sunday afternoon. The ferry was about to make its 3 p.m. departure from Victoria to Port Angeles, Wash., when the man fell off the starboard side of the ship while exiting his car.

The ferry’s car-deck doors are on the side of the boat and are shut as the boat pulls out of the harbour, but were still open when the incident occurred.

“He slipped and fell off,” said president Ryan Burles of Black Ball Ferry Line, which operates the vessel. “He was one of the last cars that parked. He was getting out of his car while the boat was going astern, and he tripped and fell into the water.”

The fall was about four metres, Burles said. It’s the first time someone has accidentally fallen of the ship, he added.

“We’ve had a person jump off the boat,” Burles said. “He tried to skip customs 20 years ago, but he didn’t get very far.”

The Coho’s crew tossed the man a life ring, and a boater in an inflatable Zodiac boat picked the man up and brought him to shore, where paramedics examined him. He was doing well, given the circumstances.

“He was very calm when they had the life ring, and the fellow in the Zodiac came very quickly,” Burles said. “He’s very fortunate someone was right there. … It was so cold — he’s all wrapped up with blankets.”

The Coho continued on to Port Angeles without the man. Burles said his company would arrange to bring the car back to Victoria or to reunite the man with his vehicle in Port Angeles.

Victoria police Staff Sgt. Kerry Panton said police are not looking into the matter.

“We haven’t received a complaint, and it’s not something we’d be investigating,” he said. “It sounds like it was an accident.”

The Coho, which operates between Victoria and Port Angeles, across the Juan de Fuca Strait, can carry up to 1,000 passengers and 115 vehicles. It travels at an average speed of 15 knots.

[e-mail]

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

[Scott (Former Account)]

Thanks for posting this, Graham.

We actually have a few members doing a trip aboard the Coho today. I wonder if they were on that particular sailing when the incident happened...

[Neil]

This sounds like a serious breach of safe loading procedures that the TSB should be investigating. How on earth could Black Ball load their boat in such a way that a person could slip and fall off the boat when exiting their vehicle? Such a thing would be impossible on any major BC Ferries vessel. Either there's something that isn't being included in this rather light heartedly reported story, or Black Ball could be in a heap of trouble from regulatory agencies, or from a lawsuit.

[lmtengs]

Yeah, sounds really weird. Especially for somebody's car door to be that close to the water... They DO pack that Coho pretty dang full sometimes.

[Scott2]

I can easily see how this happened. On a trip in 1998 we were the last car boarded in Victoria...at first they weren't going to board us, then the deckhands (looked like high school kids in plain clothes) picked up the back of a small subcompact car that was just loaded. They turned it, and decided our car could fit. We weren't even out of our car when the Coho started pulling away from the dock. Our car was diagaonal with the left rear corner seemingly hanging out to the edge of the ferry as we departed (I didn't even think the door would shut..you couldn't walk around the car). My wife, children and I exited our car right next to the open vehicle loading door. I was shocked.

We then made the trip to Port Angeles on the ferry so overcrowded that we had to sit on one of the staircases amidst the dismay of other passengers. I love riding any ferry, but this trip was so terrible it prompted me to write the only complaint letter I've ever written in my life (never sent!). I have to say I was more than concerned that my kids might have fallen out the door when we loaded...no ropes, chains, deckhand...anything to prevent this from happening. S

[Barnacle]

Aug 1, 2010 18:36:37 GMT -8 Neil said:

This sounds like a serious breach of safe loading procedures that the TSB should be investigating. How on earth could Black Ball load their boat in such a way that a person could slip and fall off the boat when exiting their vehicle? Such a thing would be impossible on any major BC Ferries vessel.

That could be because you don't have any vessels with side loading doors.

TSB can investigate, but how much jurisdiction do they have on a foreign-flagged vessel?

That being said, in my opinion, the doors should be shut before the vessel gets underway.

[EGfleet]

Aug 1, 2010 18:36:37 GMT -8 Neil said:

This sounds like a serious breach of safe loading procedures that the TSB should be investigating. How on earth could Black Ball load their boat in such a way that a person could slip and fall off the boat when exiting their vehicle? Such a thing would be impossible on any major BC Ferries vessel. Either there's something that isn't being included in this rather light heartedly reported story, or Black Ball could be in a heap of trouble from regulatory agencies, or from a lawsuit.

Um....no, not impossible. In fact, it had much worse consequences for someone, according to this:

"According to a newspaper article, a man fell off the Queen of Alberni while in dock on Boxing Day in 1986 and was killed by the ferry's propeller."

That's right off John's page for the Queen of Alberni, so yes, this kind of accident can happen to B.C. Ferries and has in the past.

[Scott (Former Account)]

Aug 2, 2010 6:37:13 GMT -8 EGfleet said:

Um....no, not impossible. In fact, it had much worse consequences for someone, according to this:

"According to a newspaper article, a man fell off the Queen of Alberni while in dock on Boxing Day in 1986 and was killed by the ferry's propeller."

That's right off John's page for the Queen of Alberni, so yes, this kind of accident can happen to B.C. Ferries and has in the past.

This incident aboard the Alberni was intentional and not an accident. The individual jumped while she was in the berth at Departure Bay.

[EGfleet]

Aug 2, 2010 10:23:44 GMT -8 Scott (Former Account) said:

Aug 2, 2010 6:37:13 GMT -8 EGfleet said:

Um....no, not impossible. In fact, it had much worse consequences for someone, according to this:

"According to a newspaper article, a man fell off the Queen of Alberni while in dock on Boxing Day in 1986 and was killed by the ferry's propeller."

That's right off John's page for the Queen of Alberni, so yes, this kind of accident can happen to B.C. Ferries and has in the past.

This incident aboard the Alberni was intentional and not an accident. The individual jumped while she was in the berth at Departure Bay.

Okay, then there was this one:

In July 1993, Bob Lord fell overboard from a BC Ferry, was carried almost 30 miles by the 3-knot current, and managed to survive until he was found near Orcas Island, over 8 hours later.

[Kahloke]

Aug 2, 2010 11:03:33 GMT -8 EGfleet said:

Okay, then there was this one:
In July 1993, Bob Lord fell overboard from a BC Ferry, was carried almost 30 miles by the 3-knot current, and managed to survive until he was found near Orcas Island, over 8 hours later.

Did they ever figure out exactly how that one happened? It's pretty hard to just fall off one of our ferries, whether it's a BC Ferry or Washington State Ferries vessel. I figure you have to be doing something really stupid, like climbing up on an outer deck railing, or you're doing it intentionally.

[Scott (Former Account)]

Aug 2, 2010 11:03:33 GMT -8 EGfleet said:

Okay, then there was this one:

In July 1993, Bob Lord fell overboard from a BC Ferry, was carried almost 30 miles by the 3-knot current, and managed to survive until he was found near Orcas Island, over 8 hours later.

Any idea information on what ferry he was on or where he fell from?

In regards to this July 1993 occurance, all because someone fell overboard does not mean that it is the fault of BC Ferries. Most, if not all have done it in an attempt to commit suicide or lost their hold while trying to sit on a railing. Recently, an Australian tourist fell off the Oak Bay. He fell intentionally as he thought it would be "cool" to jump off and swim to the shore at Departure Bay.

Neil is referring to the lack of a barrier on the Coho when the car deck door is still open and the ship is away from her berth. All BC Ferries have barriers up before the ship departs and the doors are closed. Infact, barriers are setup so far away that it would be impossible for a passenger to trip on the car deck and land into the water.

You would have to intentionally cross a barrier in order to get to a point where you could "fall" overboard.

[Low Light Mike]

Aug 2, 2010 11:17:37 GMT -8 Kahloke said:

Aug 2, 2010 11:03:33 GMT -8 EGfleet said:

Okay, then there was this one:
In July 1993, Bob Lord fell overboard from a BC Ferry, was carried almost 30 miles by the 3-knot current, and managed to survive until he was found near Orcas Island, over 8 hours later.

Did they ever figure out exactly how that one happened? It's pretty hard to just fall off one of our ferries, whether it's a BC Ferry or Washington State Ferries vessel. I figure you have to be doing something really stupid, like climbing up on an outer deck railing, or you're doing it intentionally.

He was on a Route-1 V-class, and was sea-sick and was vomiting over the railing on an open-window area on the car-deck. As he leaned over to wretch, he leaned too far and fell over.

Now with the Coho, the guy reportedly was only trying to exit his car, and didn't have to vault himself over a 4-foot high railing.

[EGfleet]

Aug 2, 2010 11:51:58 GMT -8 Scott (Former Account) said:

Aug 2, 2010 11:03:33 GMT -8 EGfleet said:

Okay, then there was this one:

In July 1993, Bob Lord fell overboard from a BC Ferry, was carried almost 30 miles by the 3-knot current, and managed to survive until he was found near Orcas Island, over 8 hours later.

Any idea information on what ferry he was on or where he fell from?

In regards to this July 1993 occurance, all because someone fell overboard does not mean that it is the fault of BC Ferries. Most, if not all have done it in an attempt to commit suicide or lost their hold while trying to sit on a railing. Recently, an Australian tourist fell off the Oak Bay. He fell intentionally as he thought it would be "cool" to jump off and swim to the shore at Departure Bay.

Neil is referring to the lack of a barrier on the Coho when the car deck door is still open and the ship is away from her berth. All BC Ferries have barriers up before the ship departs and the doors are closed. Infact, barriers are setup so far away that it would be impossible for a passenger to trip on the car deck and land into the water.

You would have to intentionally cross a barrier in order to get to a point where you could "fall" overboard.

Yikes. Yeah, that is very true. So a similar accident really couldn't happen on WSF either--not without at the very least climbing over a barrier--such as they are--at the bow. BCF much even more so--unless one of the barriers was missing for some unknown reason.

The Coho is kind of a unique case. So someone must have dropped the ball and not shut that port.

That being said...I admit I am sometimes not fully aware of my surroundings, but perhaps it is just me...I do tend to look when I get out my car, and that opening on the Coho is not small. I would really hope that as clueless as I can sometimes be I'd notice a big, open, gaping hole in the side of the ship and watch my step as I got out of the car.

[lmtengs]

Aug 2, 2010 6:14:54 GMT -8 Barnacle said:

in my opinion, the doors should be shut before the vessel gets underway.

Not always possible, especially in some BC Ferries cases. On the older ferries like the Queen of Burnaby, Nanaimo, and New West, the doors don't slide inwards the way they do with the spirits and Coastals. Instead, they hinge outwards like doors in houses. The vehicle ramp or berth structure would probably get in the way if they tried to close the door before the ship left. They need to clear any obstacles before the doors are shut.