In the middle of the night, at home on Cortes, my wife Sherry went into labour with our second child. It was May, and we'd figured with 17 hours of daylight, we'd know in time to ferry or fly off the island. But it was soon obvious that this baby wasn't waiting for dawn.

There was no doctor on Cortes then and no ambulance service, and the Cortes ferry tied up for the night at Heriot Bay. I called a friend who grew up here and knew everyone, and less than an hour later we were in a open boat leaving the Manson's Landing dock for Campbell River.

Fortunately, it was a calm, clear night, and we sped across the water into the face of an enormous full moon hanging over Vancouver Island. With the noise of the outboard, there was no conversation as Sherry and I held hands and I tried to pant with her through the contractions.

As we rounded the southern tip of Quadra, it seemed like a Vancouver hotel was floating by. Then our little boat hit the wake of an Alaskan cruise ship heading south, Sherry cried out, and our helmsman backed off the motor and said, You have the baby on this boat, and I'm jumping overboard!

She resumed her panting, and we bobbed over the wake and made it to the dock next to the ferry terminal. Ethan was born just minutes after we got to the hospital. He'll be 35 next Wednesday, and he hasn't had a birthday yet when Sherry and I haven't thought about that trip and felt grateful for Dennis Newsham's boating skills, his knowledge of the local waters, and his willingness to help a couple new to the island.

Dennis is a lifelong resident of Cortes. He's worked for BC Ferries for years now, helping to keep things running smoothly below the deck on the Cortes ferry. Thanks again, Dennis.

Times Have Changed
Now we have doctors and ambulances, police and firemen, the Coast Guard and helipads plus 911 service and street numbers. We have 12-hours-a-day ferry service from Cortes with the ferry docked at Whaletown overnight. We have 16-hour, daily service from Quadra (18 hours on Fridays & Saturdays). We have many more means of communicating. Cell phones and email didn't exist in 1973.

It would seem that we could hardly have a problem without being able to get skilled, knowledgeable help within a reasonable amount of time. But last week a baby was born in the ambulance in the Quathiaski Cove parking lot, and there were stories circulating on Quadra that BC Ferries refused to make a middle-of-the-night run to take the ambulance to Campbell River.

Dawn Ross, Quadra unit chief for B.C. Ambulance Service, said the Emergency Services coordinator was unable to contact the night watchman on the ferry, who would normally call the crew for an after-hours run. She said the medevac helicopter and the Coast Guard cutter were on other calls. Mother and child were later taken to Campbell River by the Coast Guard.

Capt. Lynn Hagen, the senior master on the Quadra ferry, said the night watchman's pager did not pick up the call. From now on, she said, the night watchman will also carry a cell phone. FAC members and Quadra residents at Monday's FAC meeting at Cape Mudge Community Hall expressed a great deal of concern about this communication breakdown, and BC Ferries management said they would work with the ambulance personnel to put better systems in place.

But, they noted, there is nothing in BCF's contract with the government that requires it to make after-hours sailings for emergency vehicles, and we were told that the union contract also does not require ferry personnel to be on-call or to turn out for emergencies.

In addition, the ferry cannot be used if essential crew are unavailable, if weather conditions are too severe for safety, or if certain mechanical work is being done at night.

The official word, emailed to me Tuesday morning: BC Ferries staff is more than pleased to assist our customers living on smaller islands without medical facilities during non-operational hours when we can, said Deborah Marshall, BC Ferries Director of Media Relations.

However, because our crew is not on-call 24-7, we cannot guarantee we will always be able to muster a crew in the middle of the night. Communities should discuss their concerns with B.C. Ambulance, which is the provider of emergency services.

So we cannot assume that the ferry is always going to be available whenever an ambulance crew needs to get a patient into Campbell River after scheduled hours of operation. And we are dependent on the good will of the people who work on the ferry who, hopefully, will continue to show up to help their neighbours in the same spirit Sherry and I were helped 35 years ago.

When the Ferry Is Running
There has never been any question about priority for the ambulance during BCF's regular hours of operation. They'll always wait for it, and if they are on the Campbell River side, they'll skip loading Quadra-bound vehicles to go get it.

FAC member Bob Brown, who represents Quadra Seniors, has raised other concerns about Quadra residents being able to catch the ferry to make medical appointments, and Campbell River physicians and health care workers being able to get to the island to keep appointments.

In advance of Monday's meeting, Bob received a letter from Corrine Storey, vice president of terminal operations, informed us that BCF is unable to provide assured loading for physicians and other health care workers to travel to and from work.

In a statement of fleet-wide policy, she also said that anyone with a medical emergency should call 911 and that Emergency Health Services will contact BC Ferries to arrange transport of the ambulance.

Ms. Storey also writes that individuals who have submitted official requests from a unit social worker, hospital, clinic or doctor can receive medical assured loading letters from BC Ferries with the following general criteria:

Traveling to/from ongoing medical treatment (e.g. cancer treatment)

Traveling to/from a critical medical appointment

Life-threatening illness

Undue or extreme discomfort and difficulty waiting at the terminal

Other medical conditions as deemed appropriate by BCF and the referring agency.

Contact the Customer Relations Department at 1-877-222-1949 or by email at customer.relationsbcferries.com.

They have been assisting customers with Medical Assured Loading Letters for some time on all our routes and are well versed in the process, writes Ms. Storey, who was recently head of customer relations.

There remains a gray area between the 911 call and the assured loading letter which involves an urgent but not emergency need for a patient to get to a specialist or the hospital in a private vehicle. Discussions are continuing about possible ways to meet this need.

FAC Membership Change
Alois Strannan from Cortes has resigned from the FAC. The terms of reference for FACs allow the chair to appoint a replacement so Monday we welcomed Myrna Kerr from Manson's Landing to the committee. In the fall, expressions of interest in serving on the FAC for the next three years will be sought.

John Sprungman, Chair, Ferry Advisory Committee