The 9-sailing wait that wasn't: BC Ferries staff say vessels weren't full after all

Warnings from BC Ferries about a nine-sailing wait between Vancouver and Victoria on Tuesday appear to have been made in error, according to staff.

For several hours, the BC Ferries website listed every departure from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay until late in the evening as "full," a message that was echoed repeatedly on the company's Twitter account.

By around 9 a.m., the company had already begun advising drivers without a reservation to head to Horseshoe Bay instead, announcing that Tsawwassen sailings were "full for most of the day" with only "limited space" remaining on the 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. departures.

That does not appear to have been the case.

While it was a busy day at the Tsawwassen terminal, staff confirmed many passengers only encountered a one-sailing wait or two-sailing wait on Tuesday.

CTV News made numerous attempts to contact BC Ferries for an official comment throughout the day, and was eventually provided a statement indicating the problem began with a wave of customers not showing up for their morning reservations.

That appears to have caused a cascading issue that resulted in the "Current Conditions" section of the company's website misreporting that several upcoming sailings were sold out when they were not.

"Current Conditions reflects all customers showing up for their reservation. We hold space for customer reservations until 30 minutes before the scheduled sailing," spokesperson Krista Boehnert said in an email. "Tower controllers update the space available within Current Conditions based on customer no-shows and the ability of our crews to load vessels to their maximum capacity."

Boehnert said passengers without a reservation were still facing a two-sailing wait from Tsawwassen as of around 4 p.m.

Travellers have been warned to expect delays between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay since last week, when the Coastal Celebration was dry docked to undergo repairs.

Pulling the vessel from service forced dozens of sailing cancellations, affecting some 7,000 passengers who had to be moved onto alternative departures.

The chaotic messages are just the latest headache for ferry passengers amid ongoing staffing shortages and a series of other mechanical issues on vessels – issues that BC Ferries' new CEO Nicolas Jimenez was hired to address.

"I understand BC Ferries is working quickly to get the vessel repaired and back into service as soon as possible. I have spoken directly to the CEO about his plans to address these and other ongoing issues and what our government can do to support the corporation," B.C. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming told CTV News in a statement Tuesday.

The Coastal Celebration is expected to return to service later this week. While the vessel remains docked, BC Ferries has been offering one extra sailing per day from both Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay..