STORMY HIGHLIGHTS: islanders’ favourite photos of last week’s storms
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020
WASTE-LESS LIFE:
VOL. 46, NO. 04
BIUndercurrent
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IN THE THIRD WEEK OF THE BOWEN QUEEN’S TENURE OVERLOADS ARE MOUNTING. BUT WHO IS GUARANTEED BOARDING? BRONWYN BEAIRSTO
Editor@bowenislandundercurrent.com
While MacDonald acknowledges that conditions can differ drastically from one side of the island to the other, let alone from conditions on Gambier or Squamish, he says that islanders should look at the Squamish forecast for Bowen information. If conditions in the fjord will differ drastically between the mouth and the north end, meteorologists often mention the localized information.
As spring is still a few months off, the honking heard in the cove this week was likely not of returning geese but rather of ferry frustrated traffic. It’s been a tense week for commuters and casual crossers alike. The 59-to-70 car capacity of the Bowen Queen means that the boarding cut-off is somewhere around the “merge like a zipper” sign just above Village Square. Multi-ferry waits, even outside of the commuter runs, have seen frustrated islanders taking to social media and exchanging words in the lineup. However, Cpl. Adam Koehle of Bowen RCMP says that save some minor fender benders and a ticket for not obeying a ferry marshall, there have been no “injuries or significant issues to date.” Though the statistics for this month won’t be available until mid-February, BC Ferries spokesperson Darin Guenette said in an email that anecdotally, he’s hearing from the operations team that the first week of the refit saw low numbers in terms of frequency and magnitude of the overloads then last week was affected by poor weather cancellations. This week has seen strong traffic demand he wrote. With high demand for ferry spots, there’s been some confusion about who gets assured loading. The ferry lineup is governed by Bowen Island Municipality’s Traffic and Use of Streets bylaw. BIM’s manager of Bylaw Services, Bonny Brokenshire, says that, without direction of council, staff cannot give preferential treatment (assured loading) vehicles. The exception for this is medically assured loading, which is a BC Ferries policy. To be eligible for medically assured loading, passengers must: “Be travelling to a critical or emergency medical appointment or be travelling due to a life-threatening illness; be experiencing undue or extreme discomfort and difficulty waiting extended periods in the ferry line; when travelling home through Horseshoe Bay, the patient must have a completed Travel Assistance Program (TAP) form.” (From the BIM website.)
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UNDERCURRENT PHOTO
SEEDS ARE FOR SHARING SOCIAL: Dawn Smoke (centre, in black and brown) celebrated the release of
her first book, Seeds are for Sharing, with a book social at her editor Silvainne Zimmerman’s (in red and black) home last Sunday. While dozens visited with Dawn throughout the evening, among them were Connie Wright, Anton van Walraven, Ron Woodall, Barb and Lance Weismiller, Emily and Markus Van Lidth de Jeude-Roemer, Amanda Szabo and her boys Leo and Arthur. The book is available on Amazon.
Weather or not we have a page HOW TO FIND BOWEN’S FORECAST GIVEN THE ISLAND DOESN’T HAVE ITS OWN ENVIRONMENT CANADA PAGE BRONWYN BEAIRSTO
Editor@bowenislandundercurrent.com
Amid the blizzards, storm watches and hurricane wind warnings of last week, islanders may have been unsure where to look for weather information as Bowen doesn’t have an Environment and Climate Change
Canada web page. So we asked Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald how islanders can get and interpret weather information for Bowen. Bowen fits into Environment Canada’s Howe Sound forecast region (rather than the Metro Vancouver or the Sunshine Coast).