A few growing pains for the new Northern Adventure as it begins its time on the North Coast.
The latest addition to the BC Ferry fleet and the vessel that Prince Rupert has been patiently waiting for since last years Queen of the North tragedy, is apparently having a few technical problems as they say. Resulting in service disruptions for the North coast once again.
In what reads like a chapter of Lemony Snicket's unfortunate events, a number of strange occurrences led to the Ferry having to stay tied up in Rupert for thirty hours this weekend, while technicians worked out some of the bugs in the new vessel.
The vessel was reported to be set to sail on Saturday evening at 8pm and according to the BC Ferries website now meets all of Transport Canada's requirements.
Glitches delay new northern ferry; expected to sail again tonight
Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, April 07, 2007
The Northern Adventure, B.C. Ferries’ replacement for the ill-fated Queen of the North, was stuck in dock in Prince Rupert for more than 30 hours this weekend while technicians scrambled to fix a series of glitches which surfaced on the way from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Prince Rupert.
The refitted ship, which went into service on the Inside Passage between Skidegate, Prince Rupert and Port Hardy March 31, had 69 passengers booked on the 1 p.m. Friday run from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy.
“Customers were updated through the afternoon and, quite late last night, we determined the ship was not going to sail. We offered to pay for their accommodation for the night,” said B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall.
The Northern Adventure was finally given Transport Canada clearance late Saturday afternoon and was due to sail to Port Hardy at 8 p.m.
Since going into service, the ship had done three round trips to the Queen Charlottes and one Port Hardy/Prince Rupert trip, but teething problems emerged Friday.
The sailing was already delayed because of bad weather, Marshall said.
Then, in an alarming string of events, a fire extinguisher was dislodged from its rack and, when it hit the car deck, it released dry chemicals. “Unfortunately, the powder activated the smoke sensor and that caused the general alarm to go off throughout the ship,” Marshall said.
It took between five and 10 minutes for the crew to identify the problem and switch off the alarms, she said.
Next, the grey water tank — which collects water from sinks and showers — overflowed and the water got into the galley. “We had to shut down the food services to make sure everything in the galley was clean,” Marshall said.
The most persistent problem came when the public address system broke down. That kept the ferry in dock once it reached Prince Rupert as Transport Canada demands ferries have a way of communicating with passengers.
“Sometimes you do get bugs with new vessels, this was just unfortunate timing,” Marshall said.
At the Crest Prince Rupert Hotel, where some ferry passengers stayed, a clerk said most were resigned to the delay. “There are not too many other options for getting out of Prince Rupert,” she said.
The Northern Adventure, formerly the MV Sonia, was bought by B.C. Ferries for $51 million after the Queen of the North rammed into Gil Island and sank 13 months ago.
In March, after a $9 million refit at Victoria Shipyards, the Greek-built ship, which holds 600 passengers and 101 vehicles, was rechristened Northern Adventure. The vessel, which was built in 2004, was greeted last week by northern tourism operators as the saviour of this year’s tourist season. Tourism suffered last year with the loss of the Queen of the North.
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