Labrador straits ferry rerouted due to ice in St. Barbe harbour

As thick ice halts ferry traffic in the Strait of Belle Isle, the operator of the ferry has found an alternate route to get passengers and freight across the strait to the south coast of Labrador.

Peter Woodward, president of the Woodward Group of Companies, says it's simply not possible to get ferries in and out of St. Barbe, on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula, so the company had to find another way.

"Prevailing westerly winds for the last seven, eight days have basically displaced all the water that's in St. Barbe harbour and we now have ice pretty much right to the bottom," he said.

"Plan B is to look at running a service from Blanc Sablon…. We hope that we'll be able to access Blanc Sablon harbour and run a service on alternating days out of Corner Brook."

While the extended run between Blanc Sablon and Corner Brook will cost the same for travellers, Woodward said the trip will take about 12 hours in each direction, but the Kamutik W travelling on the route has berths and cabins onboard.

"The Kamutik has cabins that people will be able to avail of themselves to lie down and get some rest while we're on, what I would consider a much longer voyage," he said.

"We're going from an hour and a half voyage to up to a 12 hour voyage."

Commercial drivers off to Lewisporte

Woodward said the Kamutik is in Lewisporte and will depart from there Thursday night. The Woodward Group informed commercial truck drivers stranded in St. Barbe on Wednesday to drive to Lewisporte to board the ferry there.

Woodward said he expects the winds to continue to create ice problems in the St. Barbe harbour for a couple more weeks, so moving the trucks was the best bet.

"There's not much hope that we're going to get them out of that, and these are trucks that, a lot of them have food stuffs for groceries and things of that nature destined to stores on the southern Labrador [coast] that we're more than anxious to move," he said.

Woodward said the ice conditions are "very difficult" and the ferry run to and from Corner Brook will likely continue for a couple more weeks until the winds change and ice clears from the straits.

He said he's keeping his fingers crossed that the situation will be resolved quickly, but empathizes with people who are trying to travel.

"We're going to do the best job that we can and we're going to continue to look for innovation that will hopefully get them moving."

'Not the first time I've been stuck'

Cyrus Hamlyn of Corner Brook says he travelled to southern Labrador for work and had reservations to cross the strait on Friday, Feb. 14.

After nearly a week of waiting, Hamlyn planned to take the helicopter Thursday.

"I'll get my car sent back to me on the Kamutik … rather than being here for another weekend, because it doesn't look like the Qajaq is going anywhere soon," he said.

"The best solution now is to get as far as St. Barbe and I'll get a bus tomorrow that goes down the coast."

Hamlyn said as a sales representative, he travels across the strait regularly, and while getting delayed is sometimes part of doing business, he said the delay will put him a week behind schedule.

"It's mostly Mother Nature, so it's no good to be upset. It's not the first time I've been stuck over here, I've been coming over here now for 15 years, so you've got to take the good and the bad, and this just happens to be some of the bad."

Hamlyn said there is certainly some frustration among his fellow travellers, and while he hopes for some more foresight in the future when it comes to winter weather, he'll still likely be traveling to the south coast again next month.

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