B.C. Ferries cancelled sailings Monday morning on the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen run and added some in the afternoon due to a damaged vessel that has been out of service since April 27.
The 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. departures from Swartz Bay were cancelled as well as the 8 a.m. and noon sailings out of Tsawwassen, but 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. sailings from Swartz Bay and 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. sailings from Tsawwassen were added.
Several sailings have been cancelled on the route over the last two weeks since the Spirit of British Columbia was taken out of service due to damage sustained to the rubbing strake — similar to a car bumper — during docking in heavy winds on April 27.
Deborah Marshall, executive director of public affairs at B.C. Ferries, said the vessel is being repaired at Tsawwassen terminal and is expected to be back in service Wednesday morning.
Marshall said this type of incident is very rare, and no changes are expected to operating practices during windy weather.
“The crew would have done a debrief, but it was just an unfortunate, unexpected event,” she said.
Coastal Celebration is also off the schedule, until Saturday, while it undergoes a refit, a process similar to a vehicle tune-up that happens annually to all B.C. Ferries vessels.
