Summer travel season all but lost for the Northern Sea Wolf

Premier Horgan and North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice checked out the newly
acquired Northern Sea Wolf back in May, the vessel which is to serve the
Central Coast has been delayed in refit and will miss much of the summer season
(photo from the BC Gov't)

Ongoing delays for refit of the newly acquired Northern Sea Wolf mean that BC Ferries' plans for the direct Port Hardy to Bella Coola service won't begin until September 16th at the earliest, and that service will be provided by the Northern Adventure in the interim period of September 16th to October 11th.

Mark Collins, the President and CEO of BC Ferries outlined the background to the ongoing delays through an information release on Tuesday, along with an apology to customers and tourism operators of the Central Coast for the delay.

“First and foremost, we want to apologize to all affected by this delay,”  ... “We recognize this has a major impact on our customers and the tourism businesses in the North Island and Central Coast regions. We are all disappointed that this service could not be started earlier in the 2018 season.”

The Northern Adventure's time of service for the Central Coast run can only start after its summer commitments to the North Coast runs are complete, with September 16th noted as the earliest date that BC Ferries could make the vessel available for the Direct route from Port Hardy to Bella Coola.

The Northern Adventure will shift from North Coast service in mid September
providing for direct service between Port Hardy and Bella Coola, while the
Northern Sea Wolf continues to be readied for service
(Photo from BC Ferries)

BC Ferries offered up the following options for those affected by the revised plans.

Customers who have reservations for direct sailings between Port Hardy and Bella Coola for dates between July 20 and September 15 are affected by the delay being announced today. Customers with reservations on September 16 or later are not affected. 

For affected customers, travel plans will be changed in one of two ways. Either their travel will be rebooked on the indirect ferry service via Bella Bella, or reservations will be cancelled and fully refunded. Space is limited on the indirect service and all travelers may not be accommodated. 

Customers whose bookings are cancelled will be offered the option to sail after September 15. If this is not convenient for them, they will receive complimentary travel between Port Hardy and Bella Coola in the 2019 service season.

Other than a hopeful note of a completion date of September 30th, no further details related to the timeline for the refit of the Northern Sea Wolf and when it may commence its service on the Central Coast was provided as part of Tuesday's update from BC Ferries.

 North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice and Premier John Horgan toured the vessel back in May, when the pace of the refit indicated that the vessel would be in service in late July, an introduction to the BC Ferries which now has been extended to near the fall.

The Northern Sea Wolf which was once known as the Aqua Spirit when it sailed the waters of Greece, departed for BC in November of last year, arriving at the Esquimalt shipyards in December for its refit

You can review the full announcement from BC Ferries here.

For more notes related to BC Ferries on the North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii, see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.