NORTH VANCOUVER — Those aboard a disabled BC Ferries vessel had their destination in sight as it sat in the water for hours waiting to be pushed to shore by a tugboat on Monday.
Passenger Rohana Rezel said the trip from Langdale on the Sunshine Coast to Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver usually took 40 minutes and should have finished around 11:30 a.m., but instead those aboard couldn't disembark until around 3 p.m.
BC Ferries said in a service notice that the Queen of Coquitlam suffered a problem with its pitch control, which was later repaired, with the vessel expected to return to service late Monday afternoon.
Rezel said the ferry was close enough to Horseshoe Bay that drivers had been told to return to their cars before there was any sign of trouble.
"Just as I was about to get in the car, I heard another announcement from the captain, this time saying that, 'Oh, we're having some difficulty.' And then I noticed that the engine stopped and we stopped moving," he said.
"And then the captain said there's some trouble, his engineers are going to try to fix it."
Rezel said he returned to the deck and waited while crews tried to fix the problem before a tugboat was called to give the boat "a little push" to the terminal.
BC Ferries said it also hired three water taxis to shuttle travellers who were booked on other sailings.
Two round trip sailings of the ferry between Langdale on the Sunshine Coast and Horseshoe Bay had to be cancelled.
BC Ferries said the tugboat was used to assisted the ferry out of an "abundance of caution."
Rezel said the mood aboard the stranded vessel was relatively calm on the sunny Monday, though he did hear passengers calling airlines as they scrambled to rearrange flights.
"Overall, I didn't feel that people were getting agitated too much, but there was a sense that it's a long weekend. So BC Ferries should have made sure that ferries were in working order," he said.
The 49-year-old Queen of Coquitlam can hold 314 vehicles.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2025.
The Canadian Press
