MacGregorSailors.com

I found this on the sailboatowners.com web site. I am currently reading Chinook's log of their travels through the Inside Passage and thought many of our members would be interested in this. I hope I posted the link correctly.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... ks23m.html

Thanks for the post...I think this Fall when I go to the wooden boat fest, I am going to prepare for car disembarking a little more prepared.......there is no positive floatation design for a Ferry......

This is very rare, but it is something to roll around in the cranium..... Randy

Those who have sailed the Inland Passage know that staying on the straight and narrow is very imortant, especially with wide tide swings, 10 knot currents, whirlpools, etc. There are reputedly 6000 islands in the whole route, and twice that number at low tide. All rock. Some large rocks underwater at high tide but visible at low I've estimated are within 200 yards of channels where passenger liners are traversing at up to 25 knots in the dark.

It's a tribute to the care about safety of the shipping and ferry companies that more accidents don't happen in foul weather. One small glitch in a navigational device, or one sneeze at the wheel can send a fast boat onto a reef in a matter of seconds. The captains and pilots at the border are very experienced in those waters and weather. It will be very interesting to see the results oftheir investigation. I intend to sail those waters again, and the BC ferries are the only way to go if you have limited cruise time.

Yes, it is big news here, front page with inside pictures and stories, plus second section foldouts and stories. The Queen of the North sank like the Titanic, it was gone in an hour. Amazing everone survived it, thanks to the efforts of the local community it was less traumatic than it could have been, not to mention the Coast Guard was close by. It was an older ferry, single compartment hull (no floatation) long overdue for replacement for which we can only blame goverment dithering. By the looks of the diagrams the ship was way off course, not even in the main channel, what they were doing off the tip of that island is anyones guess, but an inquiry will best determine that. Another odd piece of information is that there are no rocks showing in the charts for the area, it is all deep water and locals of the area are a bit perplexed. Rumors of hitting a submarine are bound to follow. The ferry was also a supply ship for the communities so there is bound to be some economic hardships to follow. Ferry accidents are few and far between here so it is quite an incident and historical event. Imagine the insurance claims, there had to be a few container trucks on that ship as well as personal vehicles, and I doubt that folks had much time to collect their luggage being woken from sleep and given less than an hour to be on a lifeboat. Also have to wonder about the response rate given the numerous practice drills we experience in life, how many passengers dismissed it and rolled back over before being called by ships personnel. We tend to respond pretty slow here in our workplace when the fire alarm goes off, no one takes it seriously. Must have been a very serious sounding alarm on the ship, & likely passengers worst nightmare come true, what an experience! It is going to be front & center news for the next week here in BC and it will be interesting to find out why the ship was so far off course.

[quote="Win"]I found this on the sailboatowners.com web site. I am currently reading Chinook's log of their travels through the Inside Passage and thought many of our members would be interested in this. I hope I posted the link correctly.

We encountered the Queen of the North a couple of times during our sojourn through the Inside Passage last summer. I think I may have a picture of her on our website. I know we took pictures of her on the trip. Pretty amazing that all passengers and crew got off without injury. Quite a contrast to ferry accidents that make the news from other parts of the world.

Picture and specs of Queen of the North at:
http://www.bcferries.com/about/fleet/pr ... north.html

this time of year, going under at night, in rough water, you wouldn't last long, now that it looks like there were 2 people lost with the ship. not a great way to go. but on the other hand, any crew that can get 99/101 safely into lifeboats did a great job if you ask me.