Nanaimo Harbour, highly associated with and commonly referred to as the "Gabriola Island Ferry", is a ferry terminal owned and operated by

BC Ferries British Columbia Ferry Services Inc., operating as BC Ferries (BCF), is a former provincial Crown corporation, now operating as an independently managed, publicly owned Canadian company. BC Ferries provides all major passenger and vehicle ferr ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

that goes from downtown Nanaimo across the Northumberland Channel to Descanso Bay on

Gabriola Island Gabriola Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia (BC), Canada. It is about east of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to which it is linked by a 20-minute ferry service. It has a land area of about and a res ...

. The route is serviced by two ferries, the

MV Island Gwawis The M/V ''Island Gwawis'' is the sixth vessel in the Island Class Ferry series, owned and operated by BC Ferries. Built by Damen Shipyards in 2021, this vessel is part of the second phase of Island Class vessels. ''Island Gwawis'' was launched as ...

and the

MV Island Kwigwis The Island-class ferries are Ferry, ferries owned and operated by BC Ferries. Six vessels were built between 2019 and 2021 by Damen Group, Damen Shipyards Group, a Dutch company, in Romania. The first two ships were Ceremonial ship launching, l ...

, which can hold up to 47 cars and 450 passengers with a total travel time of about 20 to 25 minutes. Descanso Bay ferry terminal

Incidents

At the Nanaimo terminal, on March 20, 2013 at about 2:20 am, a woman from Gabriola Island drove her van through a barrier gate, onto the docked BC Ferries' ship, and off the other side. The next day, an

RCMP The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

dive team were able to recover her body and the van from of water.

Notes

References

BC Ferries Transport in Nanaimo Ferry terminals in British Columbia {{BritishColumbiaCoast-geo-stub

Incidents

See also

Notes

References