We schedule departure and arrival times at Earls Cove to provide enough time to drive between the Langdale and Earls Cove terminals.
Captains on the Saltery Bay – Earls Cove ferry (Malaspina Sky) regularly monitor the Horseshoe Bay – Langdale route to keep track of departure and arrival times, weather delays, traffic volumes and road conditions. They decide how long to hold the ferry for delayed traffic coming from another route based on:
- An expected 2 hour and 20 minute travel window between Horseshoe Bay and Earls Cove in normal conditions. Captains may extend this window due to poor weather, highway conditions, etc.
- Captains may delay departure from Earls Cove by up to 20 minutes. They balance the option to delay with the ability to make up time on their sailing and get back to the regular schedule. They also consider traffic volumes at Saltery Bay.
- During peak traffic in the summer, the Malaspina Sky’s Captain may not be able to delay the sailing for traffic. Accumulated delays can affect southbound customers planning to proceed to a sailing at Langdale.
Depending on the circumstances, some sailings have more flexibility to hold up for up to 20 minutes to allow for a departure delay at Earls Cove to accommodate vehicle customers unloading at Langdale and heading for the Upper Sunshine Coast.
The specific sailings depend on the time of year and are as follows:
PEAK SEASON (late-June to Labour Day) |
The third Earls Cove departure of the day |
10:25 AM |
The fourth Earls Cove departure of the day |
12:55 PM |
The last sailing of the day |
10:00 PM |
OFF-PEAK SEASON (Labour day to June) |
The third Earls Cove departure of the day, except on Sundays, December 25 and January 1, when this is the second departure |
10:25 AM |
The fourth Earls Cove departure of the day, except on Sunday, December 25 and January 1, when this is the third departure |
12:25 PM |
The last sailing of the day |
10:40 PM |
If the ferry on the Horseshoe Bay – Langdale route is running behind schedule, the Malaspina Sky Captain will revise the departure time from Earls Cove.
Once confirmed, onboard staff will announce the new Earls Cove departure time on the ferry travelling from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale to ensure customers proceeding to Powell River are informed.
We may also post a service notice on bcferries.com and at the terminal with the new departure time