Editor:
While I wasn’t personally affected by the Oct. 2 cancellation of the 5:50 ferry, I know that many commuters were sorely inconvenienced by it. According to the service notice, the reason for cancelling the sailing was a mechanical issue with the vessel.
I wondered how often this kind of thing happens. I went to the website and found that mechanical reliability sits at 99.93 per cent, which means that most of the planned sailings are successfully completed. A bit more digging showed that there are 470 sailings every day across the system, which, if my math is correct, means that less than one sailing per day is affected by technical issues.
On further reflection, I also thought of my reaction when a flight is cancelled due to mechanical issues: I’d rather not fly on a plane with a mechanical problem. The same holds true for travelling on a ferry.
Lura Osborne Smulders, Roberts Creek
