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 in a position to need to catch specific sailings.
For example, to reach the Vancouver International Airport by noon a Gabriola Islander needs to catch the 7:45am ferry to the mainland from the Duke Point ferry terminal on Vancouver Island. That means leaving Gabriola Island with the 6:30am ferry, arriving on Vancouver Island at 6:55am, and getting to the Duke Point ferry terminal at around 7:15am. Catching that 2-hour sailing from Duke Point means disembarking on the mainland at 9:45am and arriving at YVR at 10:10am or so. Just in time to park and check in for one’s domestic flight. Were the flight an international one, “your” ferry would be another one entirely. Indeed you might have to leave the day before and end up once again at the Comfort Inn in Richmond.
If one misses the 6:30am ferry, or if that ferry is late and it causes one to miss the 7:45 connection, missing one’s flight is just inevitable. “Performativity is about connection” to other events, roles, relationships, and actors : a scheduled departure is a happening whose affective immediacy catapults passengers into the realm of risk and chance, of suspense and drama.