BC Ferries delays, cancellations prompted by ‘disturbance’

Sailings along the Tsawwassen-Duke Point BC Ferries route have slowly resumed after cancellations and severe delays caused by a police incident Thursday night.

According to the Nanaimo RCMP, there was a “disturbance” aboard the Coastal Inspiration shortly after 9 p.m.

“Two individuals were causing concern for the staff employees of the ferry,” explained Const. Gary O’Brien, adding the decision was made for the ferry to return to dock.

“One individual was clearly intoxicated and appeared to be on drugs. He was arrested. A second person in his car could not be located.”

O’Brien says investigators are now working under the assumption that that second person “at some point walked off the ferry.”

Heres a look at the line of cars at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal due to the cancellation of sailings to Duke Point. Cancellations due to police incident on one of the ferry’s @CityNewsTraffic pic.twitter.com/hj4jQnbzPB

— Danger On Air (@DangerOnAir) August 26, 2022

He notes that after speaking with passengers, crew, and after searching the vehicle, there is no indication that person went overboard, despite earlier suggestions that may have been the case. Mounties are continuing to follow up on those reports.

“We just haven’t been able to put eyes on that person yet,” O’Brien told CityNews.

O’Brien says in such a situation, officers will search the ferry extensively to find the person.

BC Ferries cancellations, delays

The incident cause major delays between Tsawwassen-Duke Point overnight into Friday morning.

BC Ferries has cancelled the last four sailings of the day along that route.

“We did have our crews work excessively long hours on two of our vessels last night and they do need to have the proper rest. So we have stood those crews down for this evening. Unfortunately we don’t have enough crew to backfill all of those positions, so we are having to cancel the afternoon and evening sailings between Duke Point and Tsawwassen today,” Deborah Marshall, spokesperson for BC Ferries, told CityNews Friday.

“The crew that worked last night was schedueled to work today and it is the whole crew that we’ve had to stand down, so that’s over 30 people on each vessel. We just don’t have the resiliency to backfill all of those positions at such short notice.”

Sailings began leaving around 7:45 a.m., with major lineups reported at the Tsawwassen terminal.

Some callers told CityNews around 7 a.m. that they were being loaded onto the Coastal Renaissance bound for Nanaimo. However, sailings were not running at their usual schedules, with some people told vessels may be leaving “late.”

“We were here at the ferry terminal in Tsawwassen at 4:30 in the morning and we had a 5:15 a.m. reservation. And the update is we are on a ferry right now,” Davina told CityNews just before 7 a.m.

View from the Air Patrol @DangerOnAir above #Tsawwassen. The 7:45am Coastal Renaissance sailing is leaving the dock to #DukePoint. Ferries are delayed today due to last nights police incident. Theres a 6 sailing wait currently #Tsawwassen to #DukePoint. https://t.co/EOyH1ewG8C pic.twitter.com/7NeyUxNO2T

— CityNews Vancouver Traffic (@CityNewsTraffic) August 26, 2022

Other travellers have also reported being sold tickets for the Tsawwassen to Duke Point route, though they were not told when exactly they’d be able to get on a ferry.

“They’re letting everyone line up for the Duke Point run on the Coastal Renaissance. The person at the booth just said that it’s going to be running late. She didn’t know when it was going to be starting and said to listen for announcements once we’re inside,” BC Ferries customer Vincent explained.

The Coastal Inspiration has also begun sailings from the Duke Point terminal.

There had been a lot of conflicting information about the police incident Thursday night. Earlier in the day, BC Ferries warned that all sailings between Tsawwassen and Duke Point were at risk of either delay or cancellation.

“Due to ongoing delays from a police incident on board the Coastal Inspiration, in addition to availability of crew, there is a potential risk of sailing cancellations” through the day onboard that vessel as well as the Coastal Renaissance, BC Ferries said in an update just before 5 a.m. The company then went on to list all sailings until 10:45 p.m. Friday.

#ServiceNotice #Tsawwassen – #DukePoint #CoastalInsp #CoastalRen The following sailings are at risk of cancellation:

-5:15/7:45/10:15am ex Tsawwassen & Duke Point

-2:45/3:15/5:45/8:15/10:45pm ex Tsawwassen & Duke Point

More info here: https://t.co/R0EjtPKp2L ^ts

— BC Ferries (@BCFerries) August 26, 2022

Other sailings out of Tsawwassen may also be affected throughout the day. 

“There was also a knock-on effect on our Tsawwassen terminal where we had a substantial amount of traffic waiting in front of the toll booths and all the way down the causeway this morning. So not only were customers having difficulty accessing the terminal, so were our staff because they use that same road network. So there were delays getting our vessels out this morning on all three routes out of Tsawwassen,” Marshall explained. “So we do expect delays throughout the system on our major routes today.”

Marshall notes some passengers have opted to travel out of other terminals amid the delays, meaning some impacts may be felt elsewhere, too.

Customers without a reservation for Friday are recommended to consider travelling Saturday, if possible.

Many travellers stuck at the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal earlier Friday had expressed frustrations.

Some recalled what they described as stress from the captain aboard the Coastal Renaissance, which was holding off Duke Point in the early morning hours, about police on the Inspiration.

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-With files from Mike Gazzola, Riley Phillips, and Ryan Lidemark