Sonia purchase is a done deal

The BC Ferries website has issued a press release detailing the purchase of the ferry MV Sonia to replace the sunken Queen of the North on the Northern route of the ferry service.

The Sonia clocks in at a final purchase price of 50.6 million dollars and another 18 million will be spent on modifications to meet Canadian safety standards and customer comfort concerns. It will also be reflagged and re-named while it undergoes its modernization process.

The Sonia measures 117 metres in length, has 70 state rooms and will accommodate 600 passengers and 101 vehicles. It presently travels the waters of Spain, but recently was based in the Caribbean which proved to be a tad controversial steeped in political intrigue as it was.

No doubt the folks at BC Ferries are hoping that the ghosts of political issues past, don't cross the ocean with the Sonia as she takes up her station in BC.

The Ferry Corporation expects to take possession of the Sonia in the next two weeks and hope to have it in service on the North coast by the spring of 2007, replacing the Queen of the North when she goes into her scheduled annual refit.