Some of us islanders are like many people in our world in that we seem to enjoy a good complain now and again, often in the name of social justice, though arguably almost as often under the guise of it. It also seems that sometimes our complaints are no more than your everyday, common-variety whines.

And most everyone needs a good whine now and again.

One of our island realities that is great fun to whine about is the B.C. Ferries. And before The Undercurrent pulls away from this editorial dock with a whine about them, let us admit that there are things to like about the B.C. Ferries. A majority of their staff, for one.

But B.C. Ferries somehow persists in not quite getting many things right. Sometimes they error large – like when they had affable islander Paul Hooson thrown to the ground for buying a ticket on board – and sometimes their annoyances are of a smaller variety, like a case recently come to our attention.

An Islander was travelling with his child from Nanaimo Sunday night. The ferry stopped during the journey due to a distress call from a small boat. It turned out a fishing vessel responded to the call and the ferry, some 20 minutes later, was back on its way.

They announced that the arrival time would now be 9:25 p.m. instead of 9:05. With unloading factored in, this meant our islander would likely not have time to drive to Exit 4, come back to the terminal, pay with his ferries Experience card at the vehicle ticket booth, then line up for the night’s final ferry at 9:45.

At his request, the Chief Steward allowed that he could pull out of the line coming off the ferry and go right into the Bowen lineup; he was grateful. However, he was told they had no way of processing his Experience card on the Nanaimo ferry, so he must pay regular fare.

Couldn’t they, he asked, charge him the amount the card would have been charged had they been able to process it? He was told no. Had this happened before? He was told yes. Has there been any consideration of finding a way to accommodate Bowen Islanders in such circumstances?

No one there knew, but they didn’t think so.

In this case, the fact the two had to pay an extra 15 or so bucks is technically the fault of the boat needing rescue. But what about the times B.C. Ferries themselves somehow cause the 7:30 evening sailing to be late? Just the luck of the draw for hapless islanders? Simply pay and forget?

We think not. We believe in such circumstances they should charge us in cash the same amount our cards would be charged if they could be used. After all, there would be something in it for B.C. Ferries besides the good will.

They could deprive us islanders of something to whine about.