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Coastal Renaissance.

bcscot

By bcscot,
in Canada (Alaska/Pacific Coastal)

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Urban trekker

Urban trekker

Posted
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The last of the new ships - the Coastal Celebration has started her journey from Germany to Vancouver - should arrive in about 45 days - stopping tomorrow in jolly old London to hype the 2010 Olympics.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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And they are doing work on the docks both at Earls Cove and Saltery Bay in anticipation of the new ferry on that route......I have been to Earls Cove twice since we got back on Friday to pick DS who came to spend Mothers Day with us.

Oh and the BC Ferries website seems to be down at this moment.

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Urban trekker

Urban trekker

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I noticed the same thing last night - it's working fine this morning and showing the Celebration in London.

 

When is the Island Sky - at least I think that is the name of the other new ship suppose to be in service.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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I don't know for sure when the new ship comes into service but as a guess it is late this summer or early fall; that is why the Queen of Tsawwassen is being pressed back into service when the Queen of Chiliwack goes on the north coast milk run.

The Queen of Esquimalt is no longer tied up down at Langdale or at least she wasn't on May 2 and 9th.

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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Doing the Queen of Surrey in the morning; saw her chief engineer at the golf club this morning and he assured me that she would make it to HB. The mere fact that he was golfing on a holiday Monday would lead me to believe that he has lots of seniority ;) or everything in his department is shipshape. Off to Whistler, if we don't get rained out first ; we will come back on Friday or Saturday....I will post my cruise review upon our return.:D Ut its the Savage Beagle at 11:30, I will leave a mark on the wall so that you will know that I was there.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Urban trekker

Urban trekker

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It looks like the last of the three new ships will be going through the canal in the next day or do - it appears to be at port in Cristobal, Panama for a planned stopover and resupply and then it should start it last leg of the trip in the next day or two.

 

On a non cruise related matter - as this is one of most local threads - sad time in Vancouver yesterday and the real shock I think is still setting in as word of the tragic passing of a young and up and coming NHL hockey player Luc Bourdon of the local team the Vancouver Canucks has hit the sporting fraternity here on the west coast very hard. R.I.P.

 

Dennis

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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Yes that is a real tragedy about Luc Bourdon I am sure his family will never recover from it and it will be a number of years before the Canucks recover, you just can't loose a number one draft choice like that.

We have old Jim Fraser on our local radio station up here and I guess he took the Coastal Renaissance to Nanaimo, well you would almost that that David Hahn had wriiten his script....all I heard on the way to the golf club this morning was how nice the ship was and and how wonderfull his trip had been.

You can see the traffic starting to build up here so I am guessing it won't be long before we see the Queen of Coquitlam augmenting the Queen of Surrey which will certainlly be an upgrade on the Queen of Esquimalt.

I am taking taking our cars in for servicing on Tuesday and where I take them is out on the Inlet next door to Mountain Marine Equipment and I intend to go in and chat them up and see if I can't find out what they are doing with that old ferry they have there.

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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Just back from Porpoise Bay and a visit with Mountain Marine Equipment re the Albert J. Savoie aka the R.J. Breadner. They were very friendly and accommodating. Evidently they use the ship primarily to service logging camps and fish farms on Sechelt Inlet, Jervis Inlet and sometimes it makes over to Vancouver Island. It also sounds like there is a private hydro power plant being built on the inlet somewhere and it is being kept quite busy delivering materials to it. They basically use it where they can roll on and roll off things and most places they go have bulkheads they can tie to. It is seldom used for a beach landing as its bottom is not conducive to that. They can put a crane on the front to load and off load materials such as nets for fish farms. They also described how recently they took her around to Earls Cove and took on a cement truck and pumper then went to one of the islands in the Pender Harbour area where someone was putting in a swimming pool. I inquired about the large hole in the side of her superstructure and they thought it had always been there to accommodate life boats and they found it particularly useful for side loading. Evidently she is being kept quite busy in her new role. I asked about the efficiency in using her and they said the real advantage in using her was that she could do 9 knots vs a tug and barge at about 6 knots plus customers can get virtually everything they want on the Breadner in one trip and that is not always the case with a barge.

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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For those who may be interested here is a link to a newspaper article regarding a private passanger service that will soon link Gibsons and Vancouver in competition with BC Ferries. This is at least the 3rd attempt that I know of in the past 15 years and all have failed. Maybe these people will pull it off but it sounds like they have a pretty loosey goosey business plan, however that said there are more and more commuters from Gibsons every year. Someone pointed out to me, and correctly so, before the last service went "Tango Uniform" is that it can be pretty darn rough outside of Howe Sound ie between Point Atkinson and the First Narrows during the winter. Advantage....BC Ferries.

http://www.coastreporter.net/madison/WQuestion.nsf/CRnews/BFD215216CF387878825746700169D2E?OpenDocument

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Urban trekker

Urban trekker

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FYI - the second new ship Coastal Inspiration starts service on Monday - here's an announcement of the event.

 

BC Ferries latest ship officially begins regular service on Monday.

Duke Point/CKNW(AM980)

 

6/13/2008

 

The "Coastal Inspiration" will leave Duke Point bound for Tsawwassen at 3:30pm Monday afternoon and make its first trip back to the island at 5:45pm.

 

 

From Tuesday onward, it will make four sailings daily from each terminal beginning at 5:15 am from Duke Point"

 

Wonder which ferry it will replace and where that one will be deployed.

 

The other new ship is in Ensenada Mexico resupplying before making the remainder of the trip home.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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I don't know which one she will replace but I believe that the Coquitlam is the one that will come on Sunshine Coast route to help out the Surrey but will also make runs to Departure Bay. BCF still hasn't released the summer schedule to us Coasters although they have for most our routes. We just laugh and say that we guess that we just can't hold that much information for that long.

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urkidn

urkidn

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I travel on the Coastal Renaissance at least twice a week. One of the big misconceptions that most people have here is that because it is bigger, it will hold more cars. In actuality, it only holds 8 more vehicles and 100 more passengers than the Queen of Coquitlam. This does nothing to appease the 2-3 sailing waits at peak times. In comparison the Spirit of VI out of Victoria hold 470 vehicles and 2100 passengers. If you need to take a car on the Coastal Renaissance be sure to make a reservation unless it is an off peak time such as the 6:30am or 9:00pm sailing. Inside, it is nice and roomy. The passenger decks are spread out on two floors but on many sallings they close the lower one off, supposedly because of lack of staff as I was told by a crewmember. The seats however, are just as uncomfortable as ever and they often close the bottom passenger deck especially for the first sailing. For $10 they have a business type room which proves tea, cofee and danish. Paint &

 

The ship has also been out of service all week supposedly for scheduled warranty maintenance. So far it has had it's share of calamities. It sustained damage coming through the Panama Canal, hit passenger walkway in Nanaimo and the doors on the main vehicle deck stopped working.

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Urban trekker

Urban trekker

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It's almost home - if you check the BC Ferries web site you will see that the newest ship is sailing through the Gulf Islands and should arrive in Nanaimo possibly later today.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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For those of you who follow such things on Monday I was in town for the KidSport Tournament at Morgan Creek and the Queen of Coquitlam was looking rather forlorn tied up at the auxilliary dock at Langdale. She is looking like she good use a paint job after her hard winter of service; in fact she looked so badly I had to rush up on deck and check to be sure it was her.

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