B.C. Ferries cancelled sailings Monday morning between Crofton and Salt Spring Island, the latest of multiple sailing cancellations on a busy long weekend plagued by crew shortages, along with an out-of-service vessel on the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route.
Six sailings between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. between Vesuvius Bay on Salt Spring Island and Crofton were cancelled as a result of crew shortages.
B.C. Ferries chartered a 12-passenger water taxi that followed the published schedule for the route, starting with the 7:40 a.m. sailing from Vesuvius Bay. Other sailings on the route were expected to proceed as scheduled, starting at 9:35 a.m.
Several sailings between Swartz Bay and the southern Gulf Islands were cancelled Sunday evening because B.C. Ferries did not have enough crew members.
Other sailings to the southern Gulf Islands operated on a revised schedule because of the cancellations.
The corporation recommended that travellers take public transit or get dropped off at terminals over the long weekend, saying parking is very limited or unavailable in some places.
No parking was available at the Tsawwassen and Horseshoe Bay terminals on Sunday or Monday. Parking at Swartz Bay was “extremely limited” Sunday at about five per cent, which increased to about 20 per cent Monday, the corporation said.
B.C. Ferries transported 41,123 passengers on its major routes Saturday — three per cent fewer than the Saturday of the Canada Day long weekend last year.
About 20,000 passengers and 5,100 vehicles travelled between Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen Saturday.
B.C. Ferries is down one vessel over the long weekend, because the Coastal Celebration is in refit and the work is taking longer than expected, the corporation said last week when it announced the cancellation of eight sailings.
B.C. Ferries said its website is also experiencing periods of slowness on the schedule pages and online booking system. The website is seeing peak volumes of nearly 15,000 customers viewing up to 80,000 pages in one hour.
The company recommends that anyone who receives an error message try again or call customer service at 1-888-223-3779.
It said B.C. Ferries staff are monitoring the site to ensure issues are dealt with as quickly as possible.
> Online: Current conditions at B.C. Ferries terminals
