We’re now firmly back into the swing of things after the New Year break. February’s traditionally a lovely month for weather and we certainly deserve it after a very mixed bag for January! We’re thrilled to have you commuting with us in 2012 and we look forward to being of service to you with our friendly crew! Also if you do have any suggestions for us to improve our service or attract  new commuters do please let us know as we are eager to please!

Also it’s our long standing custom in February to have a special raffle prize draw to give away to one of our valued commuters. And this year we have not one but two draws so hopefully there’s something for everyone. The two prizes up for grabs are

• This Friday 17^th Feb 4 tickets in reserved seating for the Twenty20 cricket match BlackCaps vs South Africa. Commencing 7.00pm. With a late night ferry to get you home it should be a perfect opportunity to entertain a few friends

• Friday 24^th Feb.  2 tickets to the Festival of the Arts show “The Wild Bride” at the Opera House 7.30pm start. It  has rave reviews from UK, described by the Guardian as a devilishly enjoyable evening!

All you have to do to be in to win is drop us an email (to info@eastbywest.co.nz) with ‘”Cricket / Festival Draw” in the title, with your contact name and mobile ph number and you’ll be in the draw. Otherwise you can fill out your contact details on the forms with the crew on board the ferries and we’ll make sure you’re in the draw.

We’ll make the lucky draws from all entries on the 7.45am Cobar Cat sailing from Days Bay  on Thursday 16^th Feb and immediately contact the lucky winners so make sure your mobile is on!!! First person drawn will have the option of either prize and second winner will receive the other.  The odds for this raffle will be as good as you’ll get so make sure you’re in to win!! The only condition is you must be a regular traveller with East By West! Good Luck!

And just a reminder about our late night sailing this Friday 17^th Feb. If you’re coming over from Days Bay for the Twenty 20 at the stadium we suggest you catch the 5.55pm ferry from Days Bay (game starts 7.00pm). After the game, the ferry departs from Queens Wharf to take you home at 10.30pm.  And if crickets not your cup of tea, why not take advantage of the late night sailing and catch a meal and a movie in town?? Hope to see you on board!

And we moving forward with technology so join us as a friend of East By West Ferries on Facebook as we’re now updating with news and events as they happen.

If you have just joined our commuting club or are thinking of it, do sign up for our free mobile text service re cancellations due to weather or otherwise. Commuters find this invaluable to receive up to the minute notification direct to your phone of any disruptions to the service. Just inform the crew of your mobile number or email the office on info@eastbywest.co.nz. Also if you want to receive our newsletters and updates by email, again just email us your address.

Do also make sure you’ve put your used10 trip tickets or monthly passes in the draw at the bar on board (either ferry) and you could be this month’s winner. Congratulations to Hamish Morrison  who won this months draw! A well deserved win at last Hamish! Are you in for the Quinella for the above draw? Monthly tickets stay in the draw for 4 months so again be in to win!

Happy sailing

Jeremy Ward

Manager

East By West Ferries

Dear Commuter

One week to Christmas! Wow at times it seems eons away and then all of a sudden it’s upon us!

The weather gods tell us it’s going to be a good summer with not much wind. With the weather over the last couple of weeks it feels they may well have forgotten that summer officially started on 1^st December!

Anyway on the water, we’ve just finished our last Christmas function on board over the weekend and I know our crew are looking forward to winding down to more normal hours.  If you are, yourself, working through the break or just taking a couple of days off, do check out our Christmas/New Year holiday timetable which will be operating from Boxing Day through to Sunday 8^th January. This year we’ve extended our weekend Harbour Explorer Tours to run right through the holiday period so it might make a small change to regular times if you are commuting. The full holiday timetable is posted on our website and we have them printed and available on both ferries so do pick up a copy.

If you’re running short of time or ideas for that Christmas gift, pop into our office and see Sarah and buy one of our ‘ferry vouchers’ for trips to Days Bay or Matiu Somes Island. You might use the ferry regularly but friends and family may not!  This is great idea for those that would enjoy a visit to the Island or maybe just come over on the ferry and visit you at home over the holidays.

One issue that has been raised that affects commuters is the carparking at Days Bay. Many of you will have heard Derek Wilshire’s comments, of the Eastbourne Community Board, when he talked to everyone on all of our peak commuter sailings last week. The Board has put forward a proposal to limit the number of 24 hour car parking spaces south of the pedestrian crossing on Marine Drive. This is to allow casual visitors and beach goers 240 minutes parking. All parks north of the crossing will still be 24 hour time limit. If you do have views on this contact Derek direct on derek.wilshere@xtra.co.nz.

It would appear this is a reasonable compromise as there will still be ample free parking for commuters north of the crossing albeit you may have to walk a tad further to the wharf. It’s all about balancing everyone’s interests.

Contd overleaf…

I don’t know whether you’ve been lucky enough to see them but there has been a lot of activity in the harbour recently with many sightings of Orca and dolphins which has delighted and entertained those on board. Also my favourite is the resident stingray which seems to patronise the shallow water rip rap area between Shed 5 and our office.  It is huge!

Congratulations also go to our lucky draw winner for last month John Seymour who won a ten-trip concession ticket. This could be you – simply make sure you put your used 10 trip tickets or monthly passes in the draw at the bar on board (either ferry) and you could be this month’s winner. Monthly tickets stay in the draw for 4 months so again, be in to win!

Lastly, wishing you the very best of Christmas’s from all the team here at East By West. It’s been our privilege to host you on board this year and we look forward to having you back on board with extra attention in 2012!

Happy sailing and wishing you and your families a prosperous 2012.

Jeremy Ward

Manager

East By West Ferries

Dear Commuter

We hope you have been enjoying the sunny days and calm sailings as much as we have!

CONGRATULATIONS to Nick Fahey, July’s winner of a complimentary 10-trip ticket and Tracy Withers, August’s winner! This could be you – simply make sure you put your used 10 trip tickets or monthly passes in the draw at the bar on board (either ferry) and you could be this month’s winner so good luck! Monthly tickets stay in the draw for 4 months so again, be in to win!

As the Rugby World Cup approaches, some of you may have tickets to games or are wanting to come into town to watch it on the big screen. You can do so without worry as we will have special sailings after EVERY match. The special sailing schedule is located in the Timetable tab on this website and on Facebook. Speaking of Facebook, we have started putting various updates on our page (East by West Ferries), not just in regards to special sailings but other things that may also be of interest so feel free to catch up more frequently that way!

Our Christmas Cruises season is fast approaching and boy do we have a deal for you! All you need to do is give us contact details for the “social activity” organiser in your company or a company that you know. We will contact them WITHOUT mentioning your name and if they book a cruise through us, you will receive a FREE MONTHLY PASS! So, if you know of somebody who may be interested, just email Sarah in the office: sarah@eastbywest.co.nz with the person’s details.

Now to some more administrative matters:

We have noticed a slight imperfection in our text notification system in regards to the cancellation of the 3.40pm sailing and alerting Days Bay commuters who sometimes take that sailing. As this is not specifically one of our main commuter sailings, we do not want to send a text out to all Days Bay commuters as it only affects a couple of you and we want to keep texts to a minimum. However, it is obviously frustrating for those who want to take it but only find out it is cancelled upon arriving at Queens Wharf. Therefore, we have set up a separate database for those wanting to receive notification about the 3.40pm sailing specifically, in addition to the normal Days Bay texts. We already have this in place for the 2.15pm sailing. So, if you would like to be added to the database for either of these two sailings, email Sarah or you will be able to do this in the survey, which is coming!

We have had a couple of complaints recently about the 0835 sailing from Days Bay running late. Upon talking to the skippers, they are aware that this is happening due to late-comers not only on the 0835 but also on the 0745 sailing. Obviously if the boat has to wait even a couple of minutes on the earlier sailings, it delays the rest of the morning sailings. We do have a very tight schedule to keep and we don’t want to have to leave people behind so in consideration of your fellow commuters, please aim to be at the wharf on time.

That is about all for now so until next time….Happy Sailing

Jeremy Ward

Manager

East By West Ferries

The winter solstice is fast approaching …. Tuesday 21^st June. This is our shortest day of the year when the sun will be at its most northerly point and at its lowest altitude.

So to cheer everyone up and celebrate heading to longer days we’re concocting a mulled wine recipe we think you’ll enjoy. We’ll be offering you a complimentary glass to celebrate and enjoy the auspicious day on your homeward sailing on all sailings from 4.30pm onwards.  Hope you’ll join us!

Now to other matters… Next week, week beginning Monday 13^th June, on a fine day to be chosen by Colin, our skipper in charge of safety & training, we’ll be holding a quick emergency preparedness & life jacket donning drill on all the morning commuter sailings. The crew will demonstrate the donning with the skipper giving a commentary over the PA. We’d ask for your full attention in this as it is important as was highlighted in the recent City Cat incident back in March. We propose that these demonstrations will now be scheduled every two months as part of our ongoing safety regime. We envisage it will take no longer than 5 minutes so as not to interrupt your sailing time too much. Thank you in advance for your cooperation!

Another upcoming happening will be our on board customer satisfaction survey. We hope to have this on board for you to complete in the first week of July. If you could assist us to take the time to complete it, this will really help us to give you the service and satisfaction you want to see.

One question we are also being asked a lot lately is will be running late night sailings for the upcoming Rugby World Cup matches. The answer is most definitely yes and we hope, barring any other charter commitments, that we will be offering late night sailings for all the matches. From a recent RWC briefing we attended for the waterfront businesses, we can confirm it’s going to be a truly exciting event with so much action and entertainment on the waterfront for the duration of the tournament. We’re expecting a big increase in out of town visitors enjoying the ferry and that should lead to a lot of extra business in the Eastern Bays as well!

Speaking of rugby, the Hurricanes are playing the Crusaders on Saturday June 18^th. We will be a running a special sailing after the match, departing Queens Wharf at 9.45pm.

Also congratulations to last month’s lucky draw winner of the 10 trip concession card, Dave Bamford. Dave’s another long standing commuter and one of our earliest “Friends of the Ferry!” (but that’s another story!) This could be you – simply make sure you put your used 10 trip tickets or monthly passes in the draw at the bar on board (either ferry) and you could be this month’s winner so good luck! Monthly tickets stay in the draw for 4 months so again, be in to win!

If you have just joined us onboard as a commuter or are thinking of it, do sign up for our free mobile text service re cancellations due to weather or otherwise. Commuters find this invaluable to receive up to the minute notification direct to your phone of any disruptions to the service. Just inform the crew of your mobile number or alternatively you are welcome to email Sarah in the office at info@eastbywest.co.nz. Also if you want to receive our newsletters and updates by email, again just email us your address or visit the website for subscription details.

Until next time….Happy Sailing

Jeremy Ward

Manager

East By West Ferries

We are absolutely thrilled to advise that as of this afternoon, Thursday 12th February, the City Cat is back to full service after its lengthy refit.
So this afternoon/evening all our sailings are running
ie from Queens Wharf to Days Bay:

• 3.40pm via Seatoun
• 4.30pm
• 5.00pm
• 5.30pm
• 5.50pm via Seatoun
• 6.30pm
• 7.00pm

So just to confirm from hereon in our weekday schedule will be the normal full schedule 6 sailings leaving Days Bay between 6.50am & 9.10am
and in the afternoon/evening as above 7 sailings between 3.40pm & 7.00pm. For full timetable info please visit our website www.eastbywest.co.nz.

Thank you once again for your patience during this refurbishment period and trust you are enjoying the new look City Cat.

We’ll have a more regular ‘newsy’ newsletter out to you in the next couple of weeks.

Hope to see you on board soon!

Until next time…

Happy Sailing

Jeremy Ward
Manager
East By West Ferries

Dear Commuter

I am very pleased indeed to advise that our City Cat ferry returns to service tomorrow morning! – Monday 9th May. Therefore on Monday morning the normal peak commuter sailings will all be operational.

ie Departing Days Bay for Queens Wharf:

6.50am -Cobar Cat
7.15am – City Cat (first sailing- yeh!!)
7.45am- Cobar Cat
8.05am (via Seatoun) -City Cat
8.35am – Cobar Cat
9.10am -City Cat

Please note however for the next couple of days the City Cat will not be operating its last two evening sailings ((from Queens Wharf @ 5.50pm (via Seatoun)  & 7.00pm)) whilst we attend to finalising the upgrade and refurbishment work.
Therefore in the afternoon evening the schedule is as follows:

Departing Queens Wharf for Days Bay:

3.40pm (via Seatoun) – City Cat
4.30pm -Cobar Cat
5.00pm -City Cat
5.30pm – Cobar Cat
6.30pm – Cobar Cat

We’ll advise as soon as the last two evening sailings are back to full schedule later in the week! (Apologies to our Seatoun supporters that we wont have the 5.50pm sailing to take you home for the next couple of days but won’t be long!)

I’d also like to thank all our regulars for their patience whilst we’ve carried out this major overhaul and refurbishment of the City Cat. It has taken longer than we anticipated but I’m sure you’ll all be happy with the result. She’s performed beautifully in her sea trials and she’s certainly enjoying her new engines and props with quite a turn of speed! Shes been totally refurbished inside and we think she looks superb! Hopefully you’ll agree!!

Look forward to welcoming you back on board!

Until next time…

Happy Sailing

Jeremy Ward
Manager
East By West Ferries

As mentioned prior to Easter I wanted to update you on City Cat’s return to service which we had all targeted for next week – Monday 2^nd May.

Regrettably, and believe me it’s personally really grating for me to have to go back on my earlier advice to you, we are not going to meet that date.  We have been held up a number of factors outside our control, namely the window manufacturers and installers mucking us around and now this week the weather. Old man southerly has really upset our final game plan for this week and we just haven’t been able to meet the deadlines we set with our contractors.

With that in mind, we are not too far away but we do need a couple of days of good weather prior to getting her back in the water, prior to our commissioning and testing procedures. As soon as she’s back in the water I will update you again and in any event look to get her back in service later next week!

My sincere apologies for the delays!!!

Also whilst writing today, not meaning to give more bad news, but it’s a sad day for us all at East By West. Today we say goodbye to one of our most loyal and respected crew. It’s Tracy Salmons last day of work with us today. She leaves to take up a new position with Fullers Ferries in Auckland and she leaves with our very best wishes for the future. Fullers are very fortunate indeed to have secured her services!  She’s been one of our most long standing crew and I know many of you on board will miss her as much as I will.  Tracy asked me to include these few words from her to you in this newsletter:

Hi all,

As many of you already know, today is my last day and I start at Fullers Ferries Auckland on Monday.

I just want to say a HUGE thank you to you all, especially those of you that I have known since I started with East by West in 2001.

A lot of you have made me smile, laugh and you have often made my day, even on the worst of Wellington days so thank you so so much.

Tracy

Until nex

Happy Sailing

Jeremy Ward

Manager

East By West Ferries

This newsletter is to further update you on progress with work on our City Cat ferry and anticipated date for return to service.
As much as I’d really love to be able to report she’s going to be back in service for Easter, I’m afraid that’s regrettably not going to be the case. Having had a meeting on site at Seaview yesterday with all the contractors who are 100% committed to doing a first class job on the boat, it’s apparent there is still a lot of work to be done. On the positive side though, we did however agree a timeline which everyone feels is realistic now that the project is well advanced.

The timeline is now to put the vessel back in the water on Tuesday 26th April (after Easter as they will be working through) for commissioning and trials. At this time the auto electricians can continue finishing their side of the project whilst our engineers can carry out full mechanical checks and running in.

At the same time our East By West crew can be fully briefed on all the superb changes and upgrades that have been made to the vessel and also ensuring all our emergency equipment is fully installed, tested and trained with the crew.

It has been a major project but it is now coming together and I know you will appreciate “the new girl” on her return!

We then also agreed with the contractors to put a line in the sand and aim to have City Cat back in full operation on Monday 2nd May, in time for the new school terms! Rest assured we will be doing everything we can to ensure this timeline is adhered to as all of our team here at East By West are as keen as you will be to see her back on the harbour and to welcome you all back on board!

So as soon as we do have her back in the water in the week after Easter, I’ll put out another update just to confirm we are on track!

In the meantime I wish you all a happy and safe Easter and that the Easter Eggs may be delicious and plentiful!

Until next time…

Happy Sailing

Jeremy Ward
Manager

Dear Commuter

This newsletter is to update you on progress with work on our City Cat ferry and anticipated date for return to service.

Firstly as you may not have been aware, the ferry was due for its 4 yearly survey in early May and we would have been taking her off the run to carry out this work in any event. The ‘survey’ for our non mariners is akin to the warrant of fitness for your motor vehicle but a little more significant. Therefore it seemed sensible, since we had to affect repairs from the recent incident, to use this time to complete, not only the repairs and survey, but also upgrade the ferry as well.

Hence she is taking a little longer than we had hoped to get back into service but the result will be well worth the wait and we think you’ll agree she’s going to be one smart and much improved boat on her return!
The work is considerable and the significant items include:

• Full rebuild and overhaul of both engines, gearboxes and generator
• Overhaul of shafts, rudder stocks & props
• Total rewire throughout of all electrics
• New bilge pump system
• New bridge electronic, navigation and radar package
• Replacement and strengthening of bow windows.
• Total refurbishment of carpets and flooring and ceiling coverings
• New reupholstering of all seating
• New bar cabinetry and replacement of all ancillary equipment
• Repaint of hull as required

So basically inside she’ll be like a new boat and this work will set her up for many more years of reliable service. We do totally understand that the current restricted timetable with our Cobar Cat ferry is an inconvenience to many of you and especially our Scot’s students and Seatoun supporters with no service! But you can rest assured the many contractors are working flat out to return her to service as soon as possible.

So you can appreciate it is very difficult to tie down the completion date of the work as there will be testing and trials etc once completed. My best guess at this stage is mid April earliest. I know you would all like a definitive date as would I, but hopefully by the end of next week we’ll be in a better position to tie down a likely date. So we will put out another update by Friday 8^th April latest.

We do really appreciate your support and patience with this work in progress and look forward to seeing City Cat proudly sailing the harbour again very soon!

Until next time…

Happy Sailing

Jeremy Ward
Manager
East By West Ferries

As you can well imagine it has been an eventful week with the incident involving the City Cat a week ago on Wednesday 2^nd March 2011.

For those on board the 8.05am sailing from Days Bay to Seatoun, it was a very frightening experience to say the least when the bow windows broke as the ferry encountered an unusually large and unanticipated wave just offshore from Scorching Bay on the Miramar Peninsula.

Emergency procedures were invoked and the Skipper immediately put out a MayDay call for assistance which arrived promptly. Everyone was accounted for and transferred safely to the vessels that came to the stricken ferry’s aid.

On behalf of the company and crew I would like to record our sincere thanks to all our regulars on board who assisted our crew with the emergency procedures invoked and the subsequent safe transfer of all passengers to the rescue craft.

There were also many Scot’s students on board and their assistance to both our crew and other passengers showed a very professional maturity in dealing with a serious emergency situation and for that we would like to record our gratitude.

Subsequently we have been contacted by many of our passengers on board that day offering praise to our crew for the manner in which they dealt with the emergency. Both our crew and myself are humbled and grateful to receive those messages from you.

We have started our internal review of the incident to establish if there are any improvements or learning’s for us in our existing operating and emergency procedures and also how we performed on the day. We would certainly welcome any comments or feedback from those on board on the day as these would be of great assistance to our review.

With respect to any of our passengers on board who experienced damaged or lost property we would recommend in the first instance that you make a claim on your own insurance. If there are any extra costs you incur then definitely come back to us re excesses to be paid or any other non insured goods etc. It’s far simpler this way and puts the claim in your control in the first instance and enables the insurance company to sort claims out.

The City Cat Vessel is now out of the water at Seaview Marina, where she has been assessed for water damage and subsequent repairs. You can appreciate that water has got into everything from engines to electrics and so it is quite a major overhaul she will be undergoing prior to re-entering service after a full new survey. Obviously even though the bow windows were constructed to the rigorous marine code, we will be strengthening these considerably as clearly if the windows hadn’t broken with the force of the water, the vessel would have carried on sailing with little or no damage.

It is a little early to advise what date the City Cat will return to service after completion of the repairs but it is likely to be around the end of the month. We’ll keep you updated on developments over the next week or so. Also we’ll keep our daily sailing status line updated (ph 494 3339) along with our website:  www.eastbywest.co.nz

In the meantime and until further notice we will operating a restricted weekday service on the Cobar Cat with three morning peak and three evening peak services only, our off peak timetable remains as per normal (see timetable below). As we expect selected peak sailings to be pretty busy, namely the 7.45am from Days Bay and the 5.30pm from Queens Wharf, if you did have some flexibility in sailing choice it would be of assistance to all if you could take sailings to either side of these ones. Unfortunately until the return of the City Cat there will be no sailings calling into Seatoun (Sincere apologies to our Seatoun regulars). Please also note our weekend timetable will run as scheduled with the exclusion of our Weekend Round Harbour Explorer sailings.

If you have just joined our commuting club or are thinking of it, do sign up for our free mobile text service re cancellations due to weather or otherwise. Commuters find this invaluable to receive up to the minute notification direct to your phone of any disruptions to the service. Just inform the crew of your mobile number or email the office on info@eastbywest.co.nz. Also if you want to receive our newsletters and updates by email, again just email us your address.

Do make sure you’ve put your used10 trip tickets or monthly passes in the draw at the bar on board (either ferry) and you could be this month’s winner. Congratulations to Gavin Walker who won this months draw! Monthly tickets stay in the draw for 4 months so again be in to win!

Until next time….

Wishing us all plain sailing from hereon

Jeremy Ward

Manager

East By West Ferries