The Skeena Queen’s long-awaited return from refit fell a little flat when a mechanical problem was detected during its initial run of the day last Thursday, but the outlook has since brightened on that busy route.

As the Driftwood went to press Tuesday, the BC Ferries website showed the Skeena Queen consistently on time all day — a beacon of certainty we haven’t seen for quite a while.

But just as the fires settled down in Fulford, new flames popped up at Vesuvius in the form of a totally revamped summer schedule that came into effect on Tuesday, June 30. Catching the Howe Sound Queen from either Vesuvius or Crofton from now through Sept. 7 demands erasing from memory storage all past schedule times. The exception is the first couple of sailings each day. Every other sailing time is different.

What is the same, though, is that BC Ferries once again took an action that has potentially huge consequences without telling anyone until the last minute.

Regular ferry users would have summer schedule changes on their radar if they were travelling on the Tsawwassen-Gulf Islands route. It changes every year. But they wouldn’t be anticipating a major change at Vesuvius-Crofton simply due to summer’s arrival.

Some of the changes certainly make sense. A bit more time has been allotted between morning sailings to Salt Spring, when it’s been hard to maintain the previous schedule at that time of day anyway. The last ferries of the day are also later than they were on the previous schedule, which will definitely be appreciated.

What is most remarkable, though, is that the new schedule was just released via an e-mail/website service notice on Monday. Knowing few people would actually be informed of the changes that way, a captain of the Howe Sound Queen personally delivered both a print version of the service notice and a copy of the full printed schedule to the Driftwood office on Monday. He then followed up with an in-person visit for assurance something would be in the paper today, since BC Ferries had not advertised the new Crofton-Vesuvius schedule in any other way.

He knows how travellers will be affected and how upset they will be by the unpublicized changes. Too bad his employer doesn’t care.