VANCOUVER–.
Hundreds of individuals were stranded on Vancouver Island Sunday night after a mechanical failure on a BC Ferries vessel.

It occurred on the Coast Renaissance vessel during the 8: 15 p.m. sailing between Nanaimo and Tsawwassen.

” A couple of minutes into the cruising the mechanical failure happened, it was, our company believe, due to an electrical problem. As an outcome the vessel had to drop the anchors,” said Astrid Chang of BC Ferries.

One traveler onboard told CTV News the ship briefly lost power.

” The lights headed out. It was just the emergency situation lights. I was charging my phone– we could not charge phones any longer. And it was very warm within due to the fact that they didn’t have a/c anymore,” stated Melissa Landa.

The group all had to work Monday morning in Vancouver so they drove into the line-up for the first cruising back and slept in the car.

” 4 people in a Nissan Versa– it was really little and we went camping, so it was full of things so we needed to sleep there,” Landa said.

Other guests, like Carlo Fortin, rushed to discover hotels.

” Absolutely worn out,” Fortin said, shortly after exploring a room in Nanaimo.

Fortin was travelling back to Vancouver with three of his family and friends.

” We needed to contact ill and fill positions for today’s work,” he stated.

BC Ferries states it offered guests complimentary food throughout the wait, but both Fortin and Landa said they were just offered complimentary beverages.

Families with children and animals required to social networks to share their dissatisfaction.

They were stranded on the water for 4 hours.

” Often when occurrences occur, we have to engage with a variety of various companies. In this case, we needed to co-ordinate with a yank service therefore we had to represent some of that time co-ordinating with them, dealing with a few of the repair work, and some of the troubleshooting that had to take place,” stated Astrid Chang of BC Ferries.

Some tried to catch some shuteye on the upper decks, laying out sleeping bags.

Multiple yank boats showed up hours later and hauled the ferryboat back to Duke Point.

Once docked, guests reported waiting as much as an hour in line to get their refunds.

” We had to re-reserve for tomorrow’s sailing so we might for sure return,” stated Fortin.

He says they had to pay a premium for the reservation due to the brief notification.

” A few of the personnel interaction was not what we required to hear. The captain saying, ‘It is what it is,’ over the intercom, which was like, ‘Yeah, thanks for absolutely nothing, manager,'” Fortin told CTV News.

He says he’s out at least $200 for his hotel room and meals alone.

” A little empathy goes a long way. Maybe they might have provided food coupons or something like that.”

Fortin says he’s disappointed in how staff dealt with the circumstance.

” Even on land they were not really valuable, not really nice. Empathize. You have 570 guests on a boat, you’re going to have 570 upset passengers.”

BC Ferries states is apologizing for the hold-ups.

” These situations are never simple not just for our team, however also our passengers and I simply want to thank our consumers for their understanding and their persistence. This is a genuine trouble for everybody in the evening and we understand this interrupted a lot of their itinerary,” stated Chang.

Chang states the repairs were done over night and it does not anticipate any extra disturbances to sailings.

Anyone who incurred expense costs due to the disturbance is asked to call BC Ferries client service line: 1-888-223-3779