About 280 passengers are safely ashore after being stranded on the Queen of Surrey for 10 hours after the ferry hit the Stormaway dock Tuesday morning at the Langdale terminal.
The ferry was pushed into its berth by tugs shortly after 6 p.m. and started unloading foot passengers and vehicles from the lower car deck.
Queen of Surrey waiting for a tug to arrive to tow it off the Stormaway dock. Photo by Buddy Boyd.
All sailings were cancelled during the day but evening sailings between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale were doubled with the addition of the Queen of Cowichan and the Queen of Oak Bay, BC Ferries announced Tuesday afternoon.
The Queen of Surrey will be out of service until further notice. Several vessels are being redeployed to restore regular service on the route starting Wednesday.
The Surrey was on its 7:30 a.m. run from Horseshoe Bay, and according to BC Ferries, “the vessel while making its turn towards the berth came into contact with the end of the marine lead and is currently held up.”
Inspections have since been conducted by regulatory agencies. BC Ferries is conducting a full investigation into the cause of the incident.
Several water taxis were deployed to transfer those waiting to board the ferry to Horseshoe Bay.
BC Ferries also said that starting March 27, the Queen of Coquitlam will be redeployed to the Langdale route from its temporary assignment on the Duke Point-Tsawwassen route. The Coastal Inspiration will move back to the Duke Point-Tsawwassen route and the Coastal Celebration will pause its scheduled refit so it can resume service on the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route. As a result of these redeployments, BC Ferries will provide service to its customers with the regularly posted schedules.
Passengers who were stranded aboard the Surrey were supplied with free coffee and food and were been given regular updates through the P.A. system, said Steph Halmhofer, a ferry passenger who was heading to the Sunshine Coast for business.
“The ferry has been pretty calm – everyone here is pretty relaxed, though I’ve heard some people understandably complain about starting to get bored,” Halmhofer said while still on the vessel in the afternoon.
While people were stuck on the ferry, others were waiting to board, including one family from Powell River trying to get to Vancouver for a medical appointment on March 27. “I’ve lived on the Coast my whole life – this is our highway,” Brittny Adams told Coast Reporter.
“Over the years I’ve seen quite a few ferry crashes. It’s getting a little ridiculous,” she said.
A group of instructors from the Squamish Dance Centre had been waiting since noon to get to get onto the ferry to Horseshoe Bay.
“We knew about it in the morning and we were quite disappointed,” said Cierrra Rohde, adding that the group members were ‘“quite prepared” and have spent the time picnicking, playing cards and board games.
BC Transit added additional buses to regional routes, and float plane companies Harbour Air and Sunshine Coast Air also added extra flights from Sechelt to Vancouver Tuesday evening.
