We Know You Have Places to Be and We Apologize for the Inconvenience

What began as a simple afternoon and evening in the city last week, turned into a Gilligan’s Island marathon, minus the millionaires and movie stars.A Friday afternoon breakdown in the ferry which normally services the Sunshine Coast resulted in cancelled sailings and people scrambling for accommodations in the city. Some optimistic souls hung out, hoping for a Plan B and one did come, in the form of another boat to pick up the slack. Incredibly that boat also broke down after delivering one load of travelers, leaving me, and thousands of others, stranded on both sides now. Win and lose, but still somehow…Can you imagine the individual tragedies and failures that resulted? The surprise guests at a wedding who travelled from afar only to miss the event anyway; the triumphant new parents of a baby born in the city, coming to visit granny and grandpa for the first time; the truck full of Chilliwack corn, steaming in the heat; the Costco shopper with a car full of meat, cheese and yogurt.The breakdowns are hugely inconvenient but also not unexpected given the age of the BC Ferries fleet, but the lack of honest communication is indefensible. The technology responsible for informing the travelling public is not 50+ years old so it falls to the operators and administrators to ensure the information they send out is at least glancingly accurate. Knowing that nothing posted online could be relied upon I turned to generous friends to put me up for the evening, planning to brave the madness which would accompany resumption of service the next day.And madness only touches on the reality. Cars were lined up for miles along the highway, far away from the eventual exit to the ferry terminal. The left-hand lane, designated for traffic bypassing the terminal and heading for the village itself, was jammed with lane crashers and several stubborn vehicles, refusing the interloper’s aggressive attempts to cut in, looked ready to engage in fist fights. There was no traffic control personnel assigned to smooth the onslaught; it was literally every man, woman and child for themselves.I showed up at the normal time to claim my reservation, itself hard won by constantly refreshing the reservation site until an opportunity presented itself, braved the Mad Max approach to the terminal, only to be told I had to leave and come back an hour later (another run of the gauntlet!) because the boats were very late and there was nowhere to put any arrivals. Again, the technology allows for anyone with a reservation to receive a notification indicating this, which would have saved a lot of headaches and arguments, not to mention alleviating the crush on the highway.Thankfully I had only a minimal amount of food with me: a bag of brown basmati, a dozen mini cukes and 8 nectarines, not enough to spoil but more than many unprepared others. Waiting for my boat to come in, I fell upon an entrepreneurial inspiration. All these other folks waiting are probably getting peckish so I could use a random empty container in my trunk and cook the rice on the heat of the engine block, then bite off little bits of cucumber and nectarine and delicately spit it into the steaming rice, then offer it, for a fee, to those who didn’t have the presence of mind to travel with a bag of rice and some produce. Genius!Despite the distraction of genius, the two cups of coffee my generous hosts had provided were beginning to beg for release and the only facilities in sight were Porta-potties, also steaming in the sun. No way, I couldn’t do it, it’s too awful to contemplate, nope, nuh uh. Suddenly an update on the website: my sailing was now expected to depart in one hour and 40 minutes. My heart sank to my bladder; no way I can last that long. Porta-potty coming up. And yes, it was everything I had dreamed it would be. Enough said. No photos were taken.Seriously, though, this situation is quite likely to reoccur with more frequency as the BC Ferries fleet ages and the volume of traffic to and from the Sunshine Coast continues to build. We’ve been discovered, God help us.My plan is to fill an old purse or satchel with the necessities I didn’t have on my person when I was forced to stay over. Perhaps this list will help you create your own go-bag that will live in the trunk of the car:* medications* underwear* toothbrush and paste* water* knife (for the nectarines)* 8 volt converter and small air fryer (you never know)* moisturizer* wet wipes* TP* handcuffs and/or taser* $1000 in unmarked bills* energy barsUntil next time, enjoy the scenery; it’s yours for an indeterminate number of sailing waits.Talking With Friends, Sharing the Load is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joannapiros.substack.com/subscribe