— from Washington State Ferries —
The 5:35am sailing [on March 21] from Anacortes to all stops [in the San Juan Islands] is cancelled due to operational constraints. We apologize for the inconvenience. Updates will occur when more information becomes available.
Upon catching the 7:40am Anacortes to Orcas ferry this morning, I was informed by a WSF employee that this early boat cancellation was due to one deckhand not showing up today for their shift. They also mentioned that this is occurring ‘downsound’ with greater frequency and intentionality, in order to draw attention to WSF employee hour cutbacks.
I dunno if that was the case here today, but there used to always be at least one extra crewmember on every run, so that the absence of just one employee would not inconvenience an entire boatload of paying passengers.