From Tsawassen the ferry ride is about 2 1/2 hours to Victoria. However, during July you should be in the ferry line-up a good hour earlier if you want to catch a ferry. If you miss it, (and during the summer months there are usually one or two sailing waits) the wait for the next one is three hours.

From Horeseshoe Bay to Nanaimo the ferry ride is 1 hour and 35 minutes...not sure how long it is to Victoria from here. The same thing applies for being there early though and for Horseshoe Bay you should be there more than an hour early. If you miss this one, the wait for the next one is usually around 2 hours.

So, all in all the actual ferry ride from Point A to Point B could, in fact, be more than 6 hours...or it could be as little as 2 to 4 hours as there's travel time before and after the ferry to take into account.