The Queen of Surrey didn’t make its 6:30 p.m. sailing from Langdale last night (Monday, April 20) due to an electrical communications problem between the engine and the vessel’s alarm panel.
Following protocol, the vessel had to stop and float just outside of Langdale before it could dock, so that its crew could figure out what was happening.
“It looks like it was an electrical issue related to how the alarm panel and the main engine essentially talk to each other,” BC Ferries manager of public affairs Darin Guenette said.
In order to dock safely, the pitch of a ferry’s propellor must be adjusted.
“It wasn’t allowing a confidence that we were controlling the pitch properly,” explained Guenette. “Which can effect docking and undocking procedures.”
It took close to four hours to resolve the problem and get the Queen of Surrey running again. By that time it had missed its 6:30 round trip to Horseshoe Bay and was about half an hour delayed when it set sail again at 8:20 p.m.
“Luckily when an alarm goes and it’s just a panel issue — an electrical connection with the engine instead of an actual engine component, then it’s a much less significant problem,” Guenette said. “It sailed fine the rest of the night and it’s sailed fine today (Tuesday) so far.”
