Police called to ferry crossing, as frustration boils over for Fogo, Change Islands residents

The RCMP were called to the Farewell wharf Thursday to deal with "tempers flaring" over the Fogo and Change Islands ferry delays.

The call came "probably around noon today," said Const.Duncan McRae with the Carmanville detachment.

He said things had calmed down when he arrived.

"It was just sort of a non-incident," said McRae. "When I got out there everybody was behaving themselves. Everybody was in good spirits."

The province's newest ferry, the MV Veteran, is supposed to be the dedicated ferry on the route, but is off the run for the fourth time since launching in December, this time because of a power thruster issue.

The provinceis offering air service but the replacement ferry, Beaumont Hamel,was out of commission for several hours Thursday morning due to thruster issues.

• 'Disrupting our lives': Change Islands mayor disappointed with MV Veteran
• 'We do have a lemon': Fogo ferry users frustrated by problems with MV Veteran

Bernice Diamond lives on Change Islands and crossed over to Gander late Wednesdaynight after spending six hours in line.

She said whenthe BeaumontHamelmade itscrossing fromFarewellto Change Islands at 5:30 PM Thursday, the lineup was"huge."

Diamond said she wasn'tsurprisedto hear theRCMPwere called to the wharf.

"With the frustration of Change Islands people," said Diamond. "You'd almost expect something to happen."

Diamond said she spent most of her day contacting politicians and ferry staff.

"Oh I'm frustrated," said Diamond, who delivers the mail on Change Islands, mail that was hours late Thursday. "I'm in Gander and I'm trying to deal with this."

Diamond said despite her issues with the ferry,the staff working the wharf and ferry were easy to deal with.

"I must say the people working on the ferry have been wonderful."

Not the only one

"I waited four hours in the ferry line-up yesterday and didn't move at all," said Kingman Brewster, who arrived at Gander International Airport Thursday morning with his family.

It's bad enough that the ferry that we paid $50 million [for] is broken. Now we have another ferry and it's broken.- DakotahNoseworthy

"Didn't know whether the ferry was running today or not, so we jumped on the plane to get out here."

Brewster is travelling to St. John's, where his wife is opening an art show this weekend.

Because of the continuing ferry issues, the province set up fixed-wing flights between Fogo Island and Gander, as well as helicopter service for Change Islands and Farewell.

"We were very nervous we weren't going to make it at all so we're doing everything we can to get there," said Brewster.

The flight serivce costs the province $10,000 a day, and it means Brewster and his family couldn't travel the rest of the way to St. John's in their own vehicle.

"We have one car in the [ferry] line-up [on Fogo Island], left our other car at the airstrip on Fogo Island and rented a car here," said Brewster.

"It's a huge added cost and lots of time. I mean, half of my day yesterday. It's not easy."

'A pretty bad time'

Dakotah Noseworthy, who is traveling with her family to Fogo Island for a funeral, said she and her family have spent days trying to get across, adding to their stress.

"It's already a pretty bad time," said Noseworthy.

"All of our family has been trying to get on the island for a couple days. We had people waiting in the ferry line-up yesterday and they had to get back to Gander."

Noseworthy made it on a flight across to Fogo Island hours before the funeral, but now she isn't sure how she'll get back.

If the ferry is running when she plans to leave Fogo Island, it will drop her off at the harbour in Farewell more than 80 kilometres away from Gander International Airport, where she took off.

"I'm hoping that they keep [the air service] up and running for a couple days just to compensate and see what happens with the ferry," said Noseworthy.

The province said air service wouldremain in place Thursday while efforts are made to clear the backlog of traffic, with a status update expected in the afternoon.

But Noseworthy said everyone trying to travel in the Fogo region is fed up.

"Everybody has had enough," said Noseworthy."It's bad enough that the ferry that we paid $50 million [for] is broken. Now we have another ferry and it's broken. It's very frustrating."

'A lot of stress'

Zhivago Leyte, who lives in Fogo and took the flight across to Gander Thursdaymorning, said the constant transportation issues have added stress to people in his area.

"It's terrible. It's a lot of money wasted," said Leyte.

"It's a lot of stress worrying, torment for people. Seniors, people for even hospital appointments. It's stressful, it's not nice."

Leyte arrived in Gander Thursday with luggage and boxes of items, but no ride, something he said is a "major inconvenience."