A fishing boat ferries health-care workers to Neils Harbour, reviving memories of bygone days

The fishing community has stepped up to help deliver health-care workers to the hospital in northern Cape Breton after a storm limited access by leaving washouts on a section of the Cabot Trail.

The weather has settled down and, on Friday morning, a fishing boat was able to shuttle people from the community of Ingonish to Buchanan Memorial Hospital in Neils Harbour.

Osborne Burke, general manager of Victoria Co-op Fisheries, said older folks still remember "The Aspy," a ferry that made deliveries along the coast before the Cabot Trail was developed in the 1900s.

"We've reinvented the old Aspy coastal service," he said.

The Grace 'n' George, owned by Tommy Simms and captained by Adam Sams, left Ingonish in the fog and delivered four hospital workers to Neils Harbour a little over an hour later.

That's normally a 25-minute drive north, but with the road closed, it's now more than three hours to drive west around the Cabot Trail.

Staff at the hospital have been working longer shifts — in some cases 24 hours and more — because bringing in personnel has been challenging.

Also, people in Ingonish who used to pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy in Neils Harbour now have to drive more than an hour to Sydney.

Burke said that even with better weather there was still a bit of an ocean swell on Friday and one of the health-care workers got a little seasick on the boat ride to the hospital.

"Hopefully, they can give them something to steady them down a little bit, but I don't know if they're going to want to come back by vessel," he said.

"But they at least got down there to help with some relief for the other workers who are on the site."

The boat was also scheduled to pick up orders at the pharmacy and deliver them to Ingonish on the return trip later in the day.

Burke said he has been told it could be a week before the Cabot Trail highway opens up again and boats will continue to ferry people and supplies as needed, as long as the weather co-operates.

"It's up to the owner and the captain of the vessel to make a determination," he said.

"They expect tomorrow morning they'll be OK to go and we'll just have to watch the winds. It's no different than fishing. Some days you can get out there and some days you can't and they have the experience and the knowledge to know when they can go and when they shouldn't."

Burke also said the boat owner and captain are volunteering their time and equipment and the co-op is paying for the fuel.

"We didn't think we'd be into this type of service, but hey, everybody's got to pull together and I think it's another example of the co-op and our members working together to assist the community."