— from Laurel Rust —
Hopefully everyone is aware that from October 22 through November 4, the San Juan Islands will be on a “three-boat schedule.” The times of sailings to and from the mainland are very different from the Fall schedule, so check the AnaSJsTemporary3BoatSchedule for sailing times.
The boat that will serve Orcas will be the Chelan, with a total capacity of 120 vehicles. The larger capacity Samish (holding 141 vehicles) will be the Friday Harbor/mainland boat. The quotas– which is the number of vehicles that Orcas can load on a sailing to Anacortes– are drastically reduced for some sailings. Quotas for anything taller than 7’2 or longer than 22 ‘ are also drastically reduced.
In the temporary 3 boat sailing schedule, our “red eye” will now leave at 7:10 a.m., and the quota it will hold is thankfully the same as now, although less for anything taller or longer than a standard vehicle.
The trouble starts with the 10:15 sailing, (the 8:45 sailing on the Fall schedule): that sailing will only take 65 cars, whereas the 8:45 takes 104, and often fills or overloads slightly. Our next Orcas to Anacortes sailing is at 1:30, and the quota for it is 69 vehicles, while the old Fall schedule 12:25 sailing, which also has been filling if not overloading, took 129 vehicles. So, for the two most used sailings from Orcas, we have lost a lot of vehicle space– basically the equivalent of one whole sailing. The situation will be even worse for our regular commercial truckers. Quotas for later boats from Orcas, beginning with the 5:05 (5:15 in the Fall schedule) open up again, but keep in mind the domino effect of vehicles overloaded from earlier boats will now be first in line for the next boat.
If at all possible, avoid these two weeks of ferry travel!
Thank you, Laurel! Excellent advice. I see we’re going back to the before-reservations times (none honored for these two weeks); but it’s even worse.
Remember those long beach walks from the Anacortes staging area, waiting an hour or three? At least they now have the wonderful boardwalk/ path that goes quite far into the Bay. Try it out…..