According to one of the ferry’s owners Ralph McColgan, the vessel had just taken off from the Ontario side of the river, at around 8:30 a.m., when operators noticed something wrong with the cable.

Upon inspection, McColgan noticed that the cable was visibly damaged, so he attempted to return it to Ontario.

However, the boat started to drift around 300 feet down the river from the Ontario side, which prompted ferry workers to drop an anchor and let the ship sit in the water until the winds died down.

At around midnight, workers managed to retrieve the boat and take it back to Quyon.

“It died off pretty good at around 9 o’clock at night,” he said. “We waited until midnight when they were really down.”

On Saturday, McColgan and his crew spent the entire day installing a brand-new cable.

“We do that ourselves,” he said.

McColgan explained that the company has always had a spare cable in the case of it ever breaking or malfunctioning.

While the wind definitely played a factor in the destruction of the cable, McColgan admitted that the cable was on its last legs and added that he and his team are investigating the situation to find out the true cause of the issue.

“The wind was probably the final straw,” he said. “The cable was in its final year. It was getting changed this winter.”

On Sunday afternoon, the new cable was back up and a couple of hours later the business announced via its website that they were open again with everything back to normal.

“We were ready to go at around 2 p.m.,” he said. “We just wanted to make sure with Transport Canada that we had clearance to go… we were back open at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

While the cable breaking wasn’t an ideal situation, causing the company to lose almost three full days of business, at least it didn’t happen at the worst possible time, McColgan said.

“You never want that to happen,” he said. “But, November’s a better time to happen than July for sure.”

Register or subscribe to read this content

Thanks for stopping by! This article is available to readers who have created a free account or who subscribe to The Equity.

When you register for free with your email, you get access to a limited number of stories at no cost. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access to everything we publish—and directly support quality local journalism here in the Pontiac.

Register or Subscribe Today!