The busiest travel times for long weekends are typically Thursday and Friday with people coming to the island, with Sunday afternoon and Monday being the busy time for people leaving. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

plan ahead

All hands on deck for BC Ferries ahead of toasty August long weekend

Jul 26, 2022 | 1:51 PM

NANAIMO — BC Ferries is preparing to move more than 400,000 passengers and nearly 140,000 vehicles this August long weekend.

To ensure they are able to meet demand, they will be operating at maximum capacity in order to provide around 2,500 sailings from Thursday, July 28 to Monday, Aug. 1.

BC Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall said their summer schedule boosts the frequency of trips between major centres, with some additional sailings added to the Sunshine Coast this weekend.

“We do have lots of extra sailings, particularly on our Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay run as well as Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay, those two runs are usually some of the busiest runs in the fleet.”

The Departure Bay-Horseshoe Bay run will have three ships delivering up to 24 sailings per day, while the Duke Point-Tsawwassen route has two vessels providing 16 sailings per day.

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Marshall said it’s all-hands-on-deck for the busy summer season.

“We are operating at our full summer schedule now that does happen throughout July and August, and we’ve got lots of staff to be able to provide those sailings and get our customers to where they need to go.”

Sailing cancellations on some minor routes in recent weeks, including between Gabriola Island and Nanaimo, provided some unwelcomed disruptions for residents and travellers.

Marshall said they do have a staffing pool of casual employees on-call if somebody does call in sick, and recent cancellations have accounted for less than one per cent of the total sailings they offer on a particular run.

In order to avoid any delays, Marshall suggests booking in advance, arriving early, and travelling during off-peak hours whenever possible.

As of Tuesday afternoon, only a handful of reservations remained during off-peak times for travel between Nanaimo and Vancouver through both Departure Bay and Duke Point.

A vast majority of sailings had their reservation allotment completely sold out.

For all the up-to-date information you can go to their website BCferries.com, or follow them on Twitter.

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