Map shows current Gabriola ferry location
If you’re waiting at Descanso for the Quinsam to arrive, wouldn’t you like to know exactly where it is? Is the ferry lingering in port at Nanaimo Harbour, half way across, or almost at Gabriola?
Now BC Ferries offers a Vessel Locations page for Gabriola – the satellite map view there shows the ferry’s location. Excellent! I guess BC Ferries has added GPS trackers to the ferries.
If the ferry were always on time, I wouldn’t find this particularly helpful. But considering that it’s often off schedule, this ferry location map will be useful indeed.
When sitting at a cafe in Nanaimo, should I linger because I’ve already missed the Quinsam’s next sailing? Or should I hurry because the Quinsam’s 15 minutes late anyway, so I’ve still got time? That will be a good thing to know, and that’s what this handy thing will be able to tell me.
(Yay for cell phones that can access the web!)
Note: the image shown with this post is a screenshot, not an up-to-date depiction of the ferry’s location. To see where the ferry is right now, visit the Vessel Locations page.
Filed in ferries,Gabriola Island 4 Comments so far
4 Responses to “Map shows current Gabriola ferry location”
iPhoniac on 01 Mar 2012 at 9:08 pm #
For smart phone users it’s even easier if your phone supports an app known as Ship Finder. There is a free version that I use on my iPhone, and it also shows me all the ship traffic in the area.
Gabriolan on 01 Mar 2012 at 9:18 pm #
Thanks, iPhoniac! I count on you for all iPhone news, you know. :-)
Greybeard on 02 Mar 2012 at 4:47 pm #
Unfortunately the ship locator associated with the ferry web cam is not very accurate. There is a disclaimer that it may take a few minutes to show the exact location and I once used it as real and missed a ferry that was not supposed to be here yet, figuring I had time :-(
Gabriolan on 02 Mar 2012 at 6:47 pm #
Thanks for mentioning that, Greybeard. I’ll keep that in mind, and will try not to miss a ferry by relying the map on the Gabriola ferry cam page.
(I’d never even noticed the map on that page. I don’t use the ferry cam, because in the time it takes me to drive from the house to the ferry line-up, everything can change.)