B.C. Ferries says delayed repairs on one of its largest vessels caused long weekend cancellations

B.C. Ferries says one of its biggest ships wasn't fit to sail in time for the Canada Day long weekend because a company couldn't be found to do necessary maintenance work in time.

The Coastal Celebration, which sails the busy Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route, was out of service because refits due to occur in mid-May in Victoria instead had to happen in mid-June in Vancouver, the operator said.

It led to eight fewer daily sailings on the Metro Vancouver-Vancouver Island route between Wednesday and Monday than originally planned, said B.C. Ferries, which warned drivers without a booking not to travel over the weekend.

Around half a million passengers and 180,000 vehicles were expected to use the province's ferry system over the long weekend.

B.C. Ferries spokesperson Karen Johnston said the expected completion of maintenance on the Coastal Celebration was pushed back to the middle of June becausethere was no bidder to do the maintenance work in Victoria on their schedule.

"The bidder on the work was in Vancouver, so we had to move to a dry dock in Vancouver and fit in their schedule,"she told CBC News.

That left a lot less wiggle room ahead of the long weekend.

"We do our best to control and plan ahead for our refit schedule," explained Johnston. "This was a situation where there were circumstances beyond our control."

In addition to the refit being pushed back, more complicated maintenance issues were discovered with the Coastal Celebration, further delaying its seaworthiness, B.C. Ferries said.

Johnston says the ship is undergoing sea trials Monday afternoon and will hopefully be fit to return to its regular sailings soon.

As of Monday, the only service alert on the B.C. Ferries website is for cancelled sailings between Crofton and Salt Spring Island.

Johnston says the ship's crew is missing a member that the Crown corporation hasn't been able to replace.

She says while B.C. Ferries has made improvements in recruitment and retention, the corporation is still lacking backup staffing if a crew member is sick or has a family emergency.