BC Ferries sailing cancellations for Dec. 19 and 20

Select sailings on BC Ferries along the Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) to Departure Bay (Nanaimo) will be cancelled Thursday and Friday for required maintenance on a vessel.

Spokerson Sonia Lowe says the ferry service knows it’s not a great time for the Queen of Surrey to be out of service.

“It just once again emphasizes that our operational fleet is ageing, and our vessels are getting old. A lot of them are over 40 years old, so when these mechanical issues arise, it just leads to these cascading service interruptions that impact our passengers,” she shared.

The following trips are cancelled:

Thursday, December 19

• 12:00 pm leaving Departure Bay
• 2:30 pm leaving Horseshoe Bay
• 4:45 pm leaving Departure Bay
• 7:05 pm leaving Horseshoe Bay

Friday, December 20

• 9:40 am leaving Departure Bay
• 12:00 pm leaving Horseshoe Bay
• 2:20 pm leaving Departure Bay
• 4:45 pm leaving Horseshoe Bay

Lowe says the Queen of Surrey experienced a pitch issue with one of its propellers, forcing the vessel into dock.

“Engineers on board noticed that they weren’t able to increase the pitch to get the boat up to full speed, so they’re just doing required maintenance on the propeller before the vessel returns to service,” she added.

BC Ferries said its Customer Service Centre will reach out to anyone who has a booking on one of the cancelled sailings. Customer service will try to find available seats on sailings later in the day. If bookings must be cancelled, fees and fares will be refunded.

All other sailings on this route are expected to proceed as scheduled. There is also an alternate service available via the Duke Point (Nanaimo) to Tsawwassen (Vancouver) route. That schedule can be viewed here.

Updates can be found on the BC Ferries website or by following @BCFerries on X.