The Hullo passenger ferry was back in service Monday morning, heading out of Nanaimo for Vancouver after sailings on Saturday and Sunday were cancelled.
Repairs to a dent the Sthuqi’ ferry sustained in a “minor bump” while docking in Nanaimo on Friday night were completed early Monday morning, said Alastair Caddick, Hullo chief executive.
Caddick said the weather on Friday was “progressively getting worse as the day went on.”
Conditions for the night ferry “were certainly windy and wavy but well within our sailing capabilities,” he said.
Teams in Nanaimo worked around the clock to have the ferry ready for service on Monday, Caddick said.
The day’s first two sailings were cancelled as repair-work equipment was removed from the walk-on ferry prior to it going back into service, he said, but the 11 a.m. sailing from Nanaimo went ahead as planned.
The ferry typically does four round-trip sailings a day.
Meanwhile, the Spuhels ferry, the company’s other vessel, made its way on Monday to drydock at the federally owned Graving Dock in Esquimalt where Point Hope Maritime workers and a Hullo team will do scheduled maintenance and warranty work, Caddick said.
It will be in drydock for four to five days but that won’t affect service since it’s low season, Caddick said.
The company is disappointed that the service had to be cancelled on the weekend, Caddick said, although he noted that the rough weather also kept from some B.C. Ferries at dock.
Hullo started offering its downtown Nanaimo-downtown Vancouver service in August. It stages extra late-night sailings for special events such as concerts and sporting events. It can take 354 passengers on its vessels.
