Originally published in the Victoria Times-Colonist Ferry-dependent community residents throughout the West Coast of Canada are used to quirky ferry schedules, peak-tourist-season invasions, and the neglect of distant landlubber governing authorities. But today a new menace looms on the horizon. It’s a menace threatening to turn the safe insulation of their island life into a … Continued
Originally published in The Daily News (Prince Rupert), Tuesday, March 6, page 2Authored by Daily News staff There’s no doubt that coastal people love to hate the ferry system — but they also wouldn’t give it up for the world, says a researcher from Royal Roads University. “In a consumer society we become attached to … Continued
3:30pm. The sailing is full of high school kids. Probably 100 or 150 of them crowd the small, ageing ferry. The Bowen Queen has very small tables and fewer seats compared to the regular ferry for this route: the Queen of Capilano. Boys and girls need to squeeze in like sardines on the Bowen Queen’s … Continued
Ready for a quiz?Question: How do you tell a BC central coast resident from a tourist? Answer: From the way they ride the Queen of Chilliwack. For starters, this is the “Queen of Chilliwack” only for tourists. For the locals it’s just “the Chilliwack,” or “the Shoebox” (given its size), or “the Chicken Boat” (given … Continued
Went off-island on a grocery run.Can’t say I had much fun.So I cruised home through Buckley Bay,wantin’ to get back to my Denman hideaway. (Chorus)Little ferry, ferry meAcross from A to B.Little ferry. ferry meon the Salish Sea. I pulled up to the gatein my island car,wasn’t travelin’ very far,only wanted to take a float,just … Continued
Orientation, adaptive, and reflexive movement skills are critical to islanders and coasters because making a ferry matters, and it matters greatly. To be sure, catching “a” ferry, any ferry, is not as important as making that particular ferry, “your” ferry. Islanders and coasters plan travel as a series of tightly connected moves which put them … Continued
Friday, February 18, 2006, 4:39 p.m.: The weather is milder than usual in Nanaimo today; the early afternoon sun is warming up the West Coast winter air, and it looks as if it won’t rain for the rest of the day. I arrive at the Nanaimo harbor side of the Gabriola ferry terminal just in … Continued
Question: How do you feel after a day in town?My answer: I find it arduous, always. I’m not sure why I find it so tiring to have a “town day,” or maybe I should say “we” because I believe I share this feeling with other islanders, old and young. Yet I set off hopefully each … Continued
“Excuse me; is this where we catch the ferry to Brentwood Bay?”“Yes,” I answer, “as a matter of fact you can see the boat coming. See?” I say, as I point, “it’s right over there.”“Do you catch this ferry often?” the lady asks me, as we strike up a conversation in the fifteen minutes preceding … Continued
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AS AN OP-ED IN THE NANAIMO NEWS BULLETIN, 2010 It was somewhere between the $10 snob pit and deck 5’s forward lounge’s flat screen TVs featuring a live Dodgers-Giants baseball game that I wished Europe took back its Renaissance. Its Coastal Renaissance, that is. Let us face it: BC Ferries’s newest mid-island ferries … Continued
