Some years one subject has a big year, with lots of stories in the news cycle on the topic.
In Vancouver, for some reason, 2022 was the year of radio announcements, with several stations rebranding (including one going viral worldwide), beloved retiring anchors, and more.
This year it was anchors of a different sort as there seemed to be an inordinate amount of ship news in Vancouver in 2023. While the English Bay Barge was very much a 2022 thing, yachts, ferries, and boats of all sorts were often in the headlines this year. And a barge, again.
Vancouver nearly got a new English Bay Barge
After the year-long visit by the English Bay Barge in 2021 and 2022, many who walked to seawall were happy with the restored view.
And then, almost exactly two years after the original arrived (and almost exactly a year since the last piece was hauled away), a second barge nearly ran aground at nearly the exact same place.
Luckily coast guard and tugboat crews on the water were able to drag it away just moments before it touched sand.
Vancouver nets visiting mega yachts
While it's not unusual to see multi-million dollar yachts on the waters around Vancouver, there were a few absolutely massive ones that caught the attention of anyone down by the sea.
One was a humongous $200 million, 95-metre superyacht owned by an American billionaire. Another, worth an estimated $100 million, floated into Vancouver waters a couple of weeks later (along with a helicopter hidden below decks). Each costs millions to run each year.
Old BC Ferries ships for sale
Old BC Ferries popped up in the news a lot recently, including one that went down.
In November, a decommissioned BC Ferries vessel known at one time as the R.J. Breadner sank near Sechelt.
Meanwhile, two others were up for sale, and, given their prices, could have made decent homes in Metro Vancouver. One was the Bowen Queen, which was retired in 2022. and hit the market with bids of around $125,000.
The other was a piece of Pacific maritime history. The Queen of Tsawwassen, as it was known for most of its life, was for sale a couple of times. It was one of BC Ferries' original two ferries and was built locally. Now it's a barge (and seems to have sold again earlier this year).
New BC Ferries ships can't sail
A regular issue this year was BC Ferries' current fleet. Both staffing issues and mechanical issues caused travel havoc and delays for those wanting to go between the mainland to the nearby islands.
One delay BC Ferries wasn't responsible for happened in May when someone drove their vehicle onto the Queen of Surrey and then walked off on the other side, catching a bus. Staff spent an hour searching the ship for the missing driver.
Hullo there
Hullo Ferries launched this year, offering an alternative to the beleaguered BC Ferries. While there have been several attempts to create a new passenger ferry service between the Canadian mainland and neighbouring islands (there was even a hovercraft at one point) none have stuck around for too long.
Hullo is looking to break that streak, and while things got off to a rough start, they've continued the service between downtown Vancouver and downtown Nanaimo consistently since.
Unusual freighters in Vancouver waters
There were a few curious ships in Vancouver's waters this year.
The Shofu Maru is a unique ship in the world for one very obvious reason. It's the only freighter in the world that has a massive, telescopic hard sail.
The hard sail is a new system that aims to reduce the carbon footprint of transoceanic shipping.
Vehicle freighters caught the eyes of people near English Bay a couple of times. While the more common, low-slung cargo freighters are a constant in the area as they travel to and from the Port of Vancouver, less common (although they do show up a fair amount).
They're very tall compared to other freighters, and work sort of like a massive roll-on-roll-off ferry (like BC Ferries).
Cruise news
Some industries are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, but it seems visiting cruise ships are back in full. In fact, beyond that. It was the busiest year ever, with a solidly surpassing the old record number of passengers in 2019.
This cruise season saw 1.25 million passengers, according to the port authority.
With growth like that it's not surprising there's discussion around a terminal in Delta.
An electric tugboat is at work in the harbour
Vancouver's getting electrified, literally. While electric cars and trucks are becoming commonplace, other vehicles are just turning over to renewable sources of power.
While there was much pomp and circumstance around Canada's first electric firetruck recently, Seaspan put a 7,000 horsepower fully electric tugboat in Vancouver Harbour this summer.
Outside the Salish Sea
Not far away there was the story of a Victoria man who got locked up in Oregon after leaving dead fish at the house from the Goonies and then getting rescued by the US Coast Guard when the stolen yacht he was on started going under near the mouth of the Columbia River. Video from the rescue shows the yacht being rolled by a wave.
There is also the team of rowers on an incredibly demanding trip across the Atlantic, including two women from Metro Vancouver.
With files from Alanna Kelly, Glen Korstrom, Les Leyne, Graeme Wood, Maria Diment, Sandor Gyarmati, Keili Bartlett, Canadian Press, Brent Richter and Louise Dickson
