While interisland ferry service has been reduced due to replacement of the Evergreen State by the Hiyu, extra ferry service is provided on the Anacortes-San Juan Islands route this coming weekend. Thanks to Lance Evans, Executive Director of the Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce, and Deborah Hopkins, Executive Director of San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau for reporting this information.
The Washington State Department of Transportation Ferries Division is providing extra capacity and sailings for Memorial Day weekend travelers going to and from Anacortes and the San Juan Islands.
The 144-car Elwha is filling in for the 124-car Chelan for service on both the Anacortes/Sidney, B.C. and Anacortes/San Juan Islands routes – a 20-vehicle increase in capacity. The 144-car Kaleetan and the 144-car Hyak are providing service between Anacortes and the islands, maintaining capacity for those sailings.
WSF is also adding sailings to better accommodate the heavy holiday weekend traffic. On Friday, May 28, WSF will provide an extra sailing from Anacortes to Orcas at 2:05 p.m. On Monday, May 31, WSF will provide an extra sailing from Orcas to Anacortes at 3:20 p.m. Also on Monday the 2:20 p.m. sailing from Friday Harbor will go directly to and from Anacortes instead of making inter-island stops.
“We are pleased to be able to provide increased capacity for our customers to travel to and from the San Juan Islands this holiday weekend,” said David Moseley, Assistant Secretary for WSF.
The series of vessel moves earlier this week was necessary to facilitate repairs on the Chelan. This resulted in temporarily reduced capacity on inter-island sailings with the 34-car Hiyu operating in place of the 87-car Evergreen State. “Our crews are working hard to complete repairs to the Chelan, and it may be possible to restore inter-island capacity early in the holiday weekend,” said Moseley.
For more ferry system information, please visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries.
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