Northern Adventure set to get back on schedule after last weeks troubles

At 11 pm tonight, the North coast’s only ferry at the moment will resume its service, with a sailing for the Queen Charlotte Islands.

It will be the first sailing since last weeks troubles at Bella Bella, where the vessel was forced to remain at anchor after engine oil contamination rendered the vessel dead in the water.

The BC Ferries website has the vessel due out at 11 tonight, returning to Prince Rupert at 5:30 on Monday, a second sailing will take place again Monday night at 11 with a return to Rupert at 5:30 Tuesday. The vessel then has a quick turn around with a scheduled departure on the southern route to Port Hardy at 6:30 pm.

While things seem to be returning back to a sense of normalcy for the Ferry Corporation, the fall out will no doubt be heard for the weeks and months to come. Residents of the Queen Charlotte Islands, weary of the numerous service interruptions over the last year are less than happy with their service and particularly concerned about the way that the latest disruption has been handled by the Ferry Corporation.

While the NDP MLA for the region and ferries critic Gary Coons, who has been busy receiving calls from angry constituents, once again has called for the provincial government to be more proactive and take a renewed interest in the provinces marine highway system.

The state of the Northern Adventure was Friday’s front page story in the Daily News as they updated readers on the troubles of the day’s just past. The Queen Islands Observer had the view from the other side of Hecate Strait posted on their website this weekend, which we also provide below.

STRANDED PASSENGERS TO BE FLOWN OFF STRICKEN FERRY
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday January 4, 2008
Page one

After spending two days on board the Northern Adventure, B.C. Ferries arranged yesterday to fly out the majority of its passengers so they could complete their journey to Port Hardy.

"There were 11 customers who elected to stay with the vessel and they will sail with the vessel back to Prince Rupert when it gets underway," said Deborah Marshall, B.C. Ferries spokesperson.

"They were either from the Prince Rupert area or have cars on board and want to stay with the ship."

Both the return sailing from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert and the trip from Prince Rupert to Skidegate have been cancelled.

There were 57 passengers sailing from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy when the ship stalled outside Bella Bella. As of today at press time, the ferry was still there.

The new ferry left Prince Rupert Tuesday night, however its engines performed an automatic shutdown in McLoughlin Bay after a crew member accidentally added contaminated oil containing water to the engine.

In order to resolve the problem, the lubricating oil was changed, however there wasn't enough fresh oil onboard the vessel to completely refill the engine, Marshall said.

Once they realized this problem, the engineers on board started using the onboard purification system to clean some of the contaminated oil.

"It is a substantial amount, about 2,000 litres they have to purify. It does take hours to do that," said Marshall.

However, it seems they were also unable to purify enough oil and B.C. Ferries is now in the process of delivering fresh oil to the ship in Bella Bella.

Once the oil arrives and is added, the ship will sail back to Prince Rupert.

B.C. Ferries other northern vessel, the Queen of Prince Rupert, is currently out of service and undergoing a refit so it wasn't available to pick up the lost runs.

It should not be necessary to take the Northern Adventure out of the water and it should be able to return to service once enough oil is available to fill the engine, said Marshall. However, until the vessel gets back underway service to Haida Gwaii and along the Inside Passage has been suspended.

B.C. Ferries expects to announce resumed service and a new schedule this evening.
It's been a rocky winter season for the new vessel.

The Daily News has had reports that the vessel encountered difficult weather - gale force winds with large waves - on a sailing just before New Year.

The Northern Adventure was bought for $51 million to replace the Queen of the North after that vessel rammed into Gil Island and sank in March 2006, killing two people.

After a $9-million refit at Victoria Shipyards last year, the Greek-built Sonia was rechristened the M/V Northern Adventure.

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Northern Adventure to head to Rupert Saturday

Queen Charlotte Islands Observer

Friday, January 4, 2008

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By Alex Rinfret--Islanders started the new year with yet another suspension of ferry service, with the Northern Adventure stalled in Bella Bella after contaminated oil was mistakenly added to the main engine tanks on Jan. 2.

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By Friday afternoon (Jan. 4), BC Ferries announced that clean oil was on its way to the stricken vessel and that it would be heading to Prince Rupert sometime Saturday. The ferry was expected to leave Rupert for the Charlottes someday late Saturday night (Jan. 5), weather depending.

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If the ferry does arrive on Jan. 6, it will be the first time islanders have seen the Northern Adventure since 2007. Its scheduled Jan. 1 arrival at the Skidegate terminal and departure were cancelled due to bad weather, and the Jan. 3 arrival and departure was cancelled because it was in Bella Bella.

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The service suspension left many islanders stuck in Prince Rupert, and visitors stuck on the islands. Tlell residents Kris and Ralph Leach, who left the islands on Dec. 31 for what they had planned would be a three-day trip, didn't realize anything was wrong until they arrived at the Prince Rupert terminal Thursday and didn't see the ferry.

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Terminal staff explained what had happened, and the Leaches found a room at a bed and breakfast. Ms Leach said there were several other stranded islanders staying there.

"I'm actually really lucky," she said. "I'm fortunate in a way, because I have Visa. I'm just thinking about people who have no access to cash."

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BC Ferries did not offer to pay for accommodation, Ms Leach said, but told them they could submit their receipts and may be compensated later, with BC Ferries deciding on the merits of each individual case.

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MLA Gary Coons said he has been receiving calls from many stranded passengers who were upset about the lack of information from BC Ferries.

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"I've had calls from people trying to get to the Charlottes and they can't get any information," he said. "Some people are lucky enough to have a place to stay because they have family, but some people are returning from holidays and have no money."

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Mr. Coons said he was hearing "major concern, confusion and anger" about the situation. He said islanders and other passengers have been let down by BC Ferries and that it was time for the government to step in and play a bigger role.

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"Again, it's a real tough one but number one, I would think that this is a result of the privatization of our marine highway," he said.

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Meanwhile, Ms Leach said she was making the best of her unexpected extra few days on the mainland."I said on Wednesday, oh, I'm really not ready to go home," she said with a laugh. "You have to be careful what you wish for."

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She also suggested that BC Ferries freeze ferry fares for islanders in recognition of all the delays and service suspensions we experience.