Harbour ferries season launched after boats altered
The Victoria Harbour Ferries are back in action after a long hiatus brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company’s 18-vessel fleet is usually on the water by the third week of February and keeps going until the end of October.
Barry Hobbis, one of the owners, said the first trip in 2020 was made on Monday.
The season has started with two boats operating from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The service is in place Friday, Saturday and Sunday only for the rest of the month, with the hope of increasing operations in July.
Measures are in place to control the spread of COVID-19, Hobbis said. Seven boats have been outfitted and meet WorkSafe B.C. guidelines.
“We’ve undergone a tremendous change to our boats,” he said.
Plastic dividers have been installed, captains are wearing masks and gloves, and only six passengers will be allowed on board at a time, down from 12, Hobbis said. Passengers will be loaded one at a time and have assigned seats.
Hobbis said it feels good to be up and running.
“The goal is to, pardon the pun, test the waters and see if we can provide safe service, bring some people back to work and ensure that if we’re going to grow the service by adding tours or more taxis that we’re doing it in a safe manner.”
The company, started in 1990, has had up to 105 employees at a time.
“We’re down to two full-time year-round employees,” Hobbis said. “We will likely be able to bring back probably 30 to 35 of our seasonal employees.”
The public has maintained a continuing interest in the ferries, he said.
“The phone calls and the email that we’ve had have just been really heartening, people wanting to do pickle pub crawls.” One event the company can accommodate is a four-year-old girl’s birthday party on Saturday.
Hobbis said the popular ferry ballet is back, and is being held
Sundays at 1 p.m.
The 2020 ballet debut went well and people seemed to enjoy it, he said.
“They were social-distancing. They had their cameras out. They applauded like crazy at the end.”
The ferries won’t carry their typical annual total of about 400,000 passengers this year.
“I just sent an email out to everybody saying the heart and soul of the company for some time to come is not going to be measured by the bottom line, it’s going to be measured by our community,” Hobbis said.
“Because we’re not going to have cruise passengers or tourists from Alberta or Washington or anyplace else.”