Queen of Chilliwack - Route 7

Trip: Circlepac (Counter-Clockwise)

Date: September 8th 2007

Objective of Trip: To ride the Queen of Chilliwack

Recap:

Me, my brother Matt and my buddy Dan decided we would go to see the Queen of Chilliwack on Route 7 (Earls Cove - Saltery Bay).  This turned out to be a wild ride. 

We left the house at about 4:00am and caught the first sailing out of Horseshoe Bay to Langdale.  Wile we were in the Horseshoe Bay terminal we laughed at the needle disposal units in the cans as we had never seen something like this before in Chilliwack. Also Matt was so exited that he got to have a ferry breakfast.  He was so happy when he got his "all aboard breakfast".  The crossing on the Queen of Surrey was uneventful.  When we got to the Sunshine Coast we stopped at Mollies Reach in Gibson's.  Dan had a good laugh at that and then we continued up the Sunshine Coast up to Earls Cove. 

When we got there I was really excited and couldn't wait for the Queen of Chilliwack to come around the corner.  The three of us were standing by the water waiting for her to come.  Dan noticed her first and I look up to instantly realize that the wrong bow is coming around the corner.  The Queen of Tsawwassen was chugging around the point.  I was extremely disappointed that she was still on route 7 a week after I thought she had switched with the Chilliwack.  The terminal attendant found this to be interesting and was confused as to why I wanted to see the Chilliwack.  He quickly pointed out that the Tsawwassen is the nicest ship in the fleet and the Chilliwack is not. 

Anyways I still wanted to ride a ferry so we got on the Tsawwassen.  Turned out to be a nice day for a ferry ride.  Wile on the Tsawwassen We then decided to do a circlepac trip, seeing as none of us had ever been on route 17 (Powell River - Comox) or the Queen of Burnaby.  When we got to Saltery Bay we drove to Powel River just in time to see the Burnaby load and leave for her 12:00 sailing, little did I know the crossing was 1.5 hours long and the next sailing was at 5:00pm.  So we wander over to the terminal and ask the attendants when the next sailing is as we want to do something.  She points at the Burnaby now a fair ways out into the straight and says "That's the last time you will see that ship for 5 hours".  We all sat there and wished we had just got on instead of watch her leave.

So we drive around looking for something to do.  We saw the breakwater built of old ships, found something to eat, went to the beach hoping to find some babes or something as it is really sunny out.  So, we went back to the terminal paid our fare and were the 3rd people in line.  This was a really boring part of the day as it started to get really warm, and there isn't much around the Westview terminal to see so we got bored really fast.  We bought a newspaper and sat in the shade behind my truck reading that, then I ended up lying on the asphalt under the truck looking at bolts and wires.  This is where it got interesting.

Remember that "All aboard breakfast" Matt had, well at about 3:00 he says he doesn't feel good and goes to the facilities.  About 20 minutes later he comes back and I ask what took him so long. He says he no longer likes ferry food and has left a partially digested "all aboard" breakfast" in the can, but now he feels great.  Then the boredom kicks in again so, we fed seagulls chips and got on the Burnaby's 5:00 from Westview to Little River.

During the sailing Matt slept on the box in the forward lounge Dan found a seat and read the newspaper and I walked around looking at the ferry and the scenery.  This crossing took almost 2 hours as there was a tug with 2 barges that cut us off outside of Comox.  They actually stopped the ferry and drifted for about 15 minutes before the Tug passed.

Then we drove down to Nanaimo and missed the 7:30 by like 5 minutes and had to get on the 9:35.  Once again we were bored so we bought a bottle of pop drank it and then partially filled it with water and threw it around in the empty holding lanes.  When we finally got on the Queen of Oak Bay we were hungry again and Matt ate some more ferry food under protest.  We sat on deck 5 under the bridge and watched the lights of Vancouver drift towards us.

When we got to Horseshoe Bay I was really tired and still had to drive home.  We had to stop in Abbotsford and have 1/2 hour break before I finished the last leg home.  We got home at about 2:00AM that's 22 hours after we left.  I hadn't slept at all in that time.  So, the circlepac can be done in one day, but I don't suggest it unless you can get on that 12:00 sailing out of Westview, or if someone else can share the driving.

Cheers,