Alright, here's my usual log of the trip.
Like NewFlyer, I was up and running by 6:00am. It appeared to be a nice and clear morning, perfect for a Ferry trip. The trip to Horseshoe Bay went by quicker than I first thought, so I had some time to kill at the Bay for a while. So I bought a cinnamon bun and coffee from Blenz, and walked out to the Pier. I thought I would sit down at the bench on the pier and watch the Capilano leave. I wasn't even half finished my cinnamon bun and the Renaissance began to pull into the Bay. So my nice and comfortable breakfast was swollowed fast. I was hoping to see some sort of major damge from the side, but most of the damage right at the bow. The
ONLY damage I was able to see from my point of view, was a dented railing on one of the pickle fork decks, in front of the bridge. That must have been quite the wake up call for the bridge crew. Scott will post his photos of the rest of the damage on another thread I'm sure.
Can you spot the Ferry geek?
At this point, we met up with Ernie at the pier, and we watched the Renaissance depart. So we all piled in my car and headed for our second stop, at the Lonsdale Quay to check up on the New West. I'll save these photos for another thread. We happened to find NewFlyer positioned on the pier, and we all of course did the secret handshake and said the password.
NewFlyer joined us for the ride to Tsawwassen (No Mikey, you don't owe me gas money. I didn't want any, seeming it wouldnt be fair as I was already going to Tsawwassen anyway). We made good time for getting to Tsawwassen, just in time to watch the Queen of Tsawwassen arrive.
Somebody is challenging another member for their title
Just minutes after the Tsawwassen touched the dock, the SoBC was making the final approach. We stood around waiting in the Berth 3 waiting room waiting to see Karl and Mirrlees walking down the ramp. I just happened to glace out the window once everyone had disembarked, and saw Karl and Mirrlees walking out of the Footpassenger ticket booth, and heading for Berth 2. So we chased them over there. We noticed that the rest of the group was beginning to form at the bow of the vessel, so that's where we stayed right up until we left.
Now we enter Active Pass.
Hard to Starboard!
Queen of Saanich
Queen of Vancouver
It's pretty safe to say that the trip from Tsawwassen was pretty uneventful. We all spent most of the time sitting on the lifejacket lockers at the bow, taking in the beautiful Gulf Island scenery.
At Pender Island, the one and only true Queen of Esquimalt boarded the Queen of Tsawwassen, which meant we now had 10 people together as a group. Throughout the sailing, we had some in depth conversation of almost everything there was to think of.
Eventually we rolled into Long Harbour in good time, but the docking caused some delays. It took about 3 trys to get the Tsawwassens into that dock. We had to remember that it was the crews first time actually docking the vessel for the first time in a while. It was entertaining to watch, nonetheless. We all disembarked of course, and found a trail to a small beach that was parallel to the berth. This is where we got photos of the ship, and a group photo of us all.
At around 3:45pm, we were off and heading for Mayne Island. For this part, alot of us spent some quality time in the cafeteria to take advantage of the old Ferry food menu. Before we knew it, we were side by side with the Mayne Queen at her namesake Island.
Believe it or not, we spend the part of the trip through Active Pass to Galiano on the Car deck. We were talking to a friend of mine from Flickr.com, who just happened to be working this afternoon. While we were going through the pass, we could hear the V-Class horns, and we knew they were passing each other right in front of us, yet none of us could see.
just before 5:00pm, we pulled into Sturdies Bay to find a lot full of cars waiting to board, with a pile of walk-ons. The Tsawwassen was already pretty fully loaded as it was, and they really had to deep throat this load. But it was a real challenge to load for the crew, as they couldnt have vehicles pointing the right way around, causing some interesting sights at Tsawwassen. We must have spent over half an hour at this stop, compared to at least 10 minutes at all of the other stops. We were limited to our entertainment at this point, but we managed.
Eventually we left the dock, and the Tsawwassen was crowded with lots of people. It was nice to see the sundeck benches actually being used for once.
We passed the Spirit of Vancouver Island as we left the Pass.
One of the Generators down below seemed to be acting up. It was puffing out black smoke intermittently every 5 minutes or so, and would last for a minute or two. It was a little disconcerning to see.
It was quite hazy looking out in the middle of the Strait. Some of us joked about the Queen of Cowichan sailing off into "The Mist", while refering to the story by Stephen King.
Eventually we pulled into Tsawwassen at about 6:25pm, about 25 mins late if I recall the schedule correctly. We spend the final 5 mins of the voyage in the forward lounge, and we of course had to joke about the beer goggle windows.
Here she is again, back at what was once her home port for one of the last times. But to distract us from that moment of history, we were entertained by the cars that had boarded at Studies Bay, that had to reverse off the vessel.
I took Scott and Mill Bay back to Horseshoe Bay, so Scott could catch the Renaissance back home, and Mill Bay can take his car back home to Chilliwack. Scott tried to wait on the pier with us to watch the Renaissance arrive, but she was running late and Scott was worried he wouldn't be able to buy his return ticket home if we waited any longer. Sure enough, she pulled around the point by 8:55pm for the 9:00pm sailing
To finish off another awesome day trip, I'll conclude this post with some nightime photos of the Renaissance.
We'll probably never see her again at Swartz Bay. 
what great photos. Here are a few I took last summer.
