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Post by Low Light Mike on Oct 10, 2018 18:26:33 GMT -8
A story about the fire-season work done by the Francois Lake Ferry: HERE
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Post by Starsteward on Oct 11, 2018 17:00:37 GMT -8
A story about the fire-season work done by the Francois Lake Ferry: HERE One of the unfortunate realities of living in the dense throng of Greater Vancouver is that while our local television broadcasters did a reasonable job at providing coverage of the provincial wildfire disaster, they did not present the kind of detailed stories of humanitarianism as demonstrated by the wonderful people described in this story! Very often, we who live in the Lower Mainland are subjected to steady diet of negative stories and we often begin to see our world in a diminished light. This story brings to light, yet again, the true spirit of 'humanity' and 'community' that we sometimes forget remains the backbone of our society. To all the fire fighters that came from near and far to assist us in a time of perilous need in many parts of B.C., "THANK-YOU"! Your sacrifices have been duly noticed and reaffirms my sometimes waning faith in our world that we really should continue to have faith in our fellow man. Thanks for the posting 'LLM'.
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Post by Mike C on Feb 12, 2024 21:10:44 GMT -8
Ever since I moved to PG nearly a decade ago, every six months or so I punch the Omineca Princess into the 'news' section of Google to see what comes up. Finally, my patience and persistence has paid off. The ferry that has sat dormant on Francois Lake for two decades, spending about 40% of her life mothballed, will officially be scrapped. This was unceremoniously announced back in November, so it is possible that the ship has been moved to Southside already. The actual dismantling process likely won't begin until after the ice on the lake thaws. One more interesting semi-related note is that both the Colleymount (Burns Lake) and Southside terminals are two of the handful of remaining wooden structure berths in BC, and I believe are the last in the Inland Ferry system. The Omineca Princess has been occupying the Colleymount side for some time, and I'm going to speculate that this could be part of a broader plan to rehabilitate or replace these structures. The Francois Forester has been using a landing-craft-type setup to dock on the Colleymount side while the OP has taken up the only proper berth. Story here: www.burnslakelakesdistrictnews.com/news/the-omineca-princess-will-be-dismantled-after-20-years-6843162
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Post by northwesterner on Feb 12, 2024 21:23:51 GMT -8
When I traveled on her this past weekend, Francois Lake was completely frozen over, with the exception of a trail that she had created to travel back and forth. After evaluating the ice thickness, I determined it to be safe to walk out on to the lake a short distance and snap some unique photographs. I'm not aware of another place one could step out on to ice to photograph a ferry from a unique angle. Wait ... you're an expert evaluator of ice thickness, now?
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,175
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Post by Neil on Feb 12, 2024 22:35:45 GMT -8
Mike, if the Omineca Princess was decommissioned in '09, what has Waterbridge been doing when the 'Forester is out for refit?
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Post by Mike C on Feb 13, 2024 5:21:57 GMT -8
When I traveled on her this past weekend, Francois Lake was completely frozen over, with the exception of a trail that she had created to travel back and forth. After evaluating the ice thickness, I determined it to be safe to walk out on to the lake a short distance and snap some unique photographs. I'm not aware of another place one could step out on to ice to photograph a ferry from a unique angle. Wait ... you're an expert evaluator of ice thickness, now? Haven’t fallen through yet! Mike, if the Omineca Princess was decommissioned in '09, what has Waterbridge been doing when the ' Forester is out for refit? Going solely by what’s posted on Drive BC, instead of extended refit periods, they just cancel sailings in advance to conduct needed maintenance, usually at the beginning or end of the day. This was (probably still is?) also the case with the Columbia back when I lived in that part of the province, and for that ship it seemed to be a couple times per year, but I’m not sure about the intervals for the FF.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Feb 13, 2024 7:42:59 GMT -8
Ever since I moved to PG nearly a decade ago, every six months or so I punch the Omineca Princess into the 'news' section of Google to see what comes up. Finally, my patience and persistence has paid off. The ferry that has sat dormant on Francois Lake for two decades, spending about 40% of her life mothballed, will officially be scrapped. Thanks for this update. Probably similar to other people here, the presence of the yellow/orange/whatever coloured ship at the northside berth captured my imagination when I took that route. My sighting was in 2010 and was a ferry-nerd style over-&-back trip. The fact that my sighting was 14 years ago gives me a personal connection to the story of how long that old ship has rested idle awaiting her fate.
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