Coastal living

As any coastal dweller will know, we depend on the ferries for our transportation. The water is our highway. Well today was a day that reminded us again of our dependence on and vulnerability to the folk who run the ships. 
The Queen of Nanaimo has been in service 53 years. She is due to retire this fall and today, one of her controllable pitch propellers, broke down. We departed an hour late (11:10AM) when the mechanic who had worked on her pronounced her fixed. When we got to our port, the captain announced that the prop had failed, it was not safe to land or continue on and the Q of N and a boat load of people bound for 4 different destinations, limped back across the Strait of Georgia on one prop anticipating a tug assisted landing. No tug was available and the captain did an amazing job of docking her safely. Chaos reined at the terminal. ONLY because we have had 30 years of ferry experience and knew how to problem solve, we caught a 3pm ferry to Swartz Bay AND made a transfer to the InterIsland ferry. And that was ONLY because of the efforts of Moira, a very empathetic and organized Chief Steward on the big ferry AND the ground crew at the terminal. They held the small ferry for us and we all departed only12 min late. Theses folk understood the importance of the 10 of us making that sailing. We were home by 7:30pm having started out 13 hours earlier. 
The ferry is still out of service. The cancellation of this one key vessel has caused havoc for many. We will know on Monday whether she will be back in service any more. Were we on the last run of the Q of N? 
This is her wake as we slowly made our way back to the Mainland. Historic moments.