Man Overboard

Yesterday's 3PM BC Ferries sailing from Departure Bay (Nanaimo) to Horseshoe Bay (West Vancouver) was going swimmingly until the captain announced that the approaching ferry, the Queen of Oak Bay, had a "man overboard," and that we, the Queen of Cowichan, might be asked to help in his (or her?) rescue.

Within minutes, both ferries had lowered their orange speedboats. Shortly after that, a dramatic entrance by the Coast Guard in an even faster speedboat, followed by that platypus of ocean-going vessels, the hovercraft.

During this half hour rescue there were a number of announcements made over our ship's public address system. Most concerned the kitchen staff, who were asked first to "return to your stations," and then to "stand down."

Later that night CKNW reported that the Queen of Oak Bay had cancelled the remainder of her daily sailings. News of these cancellations came from the BC Ferries Corporation Twitter feed. The picture posted by the Province newspaper also came from Twitter -- in this instance, from the mountain biker standing beside me.