||| FROM WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES |||
We’re expecting about 700,000 people to ride our ferries this Fourth of July holiday period. Passengers should consider giving themselves extra travel time to get to the terminal and through the tollbooth.
To help navigate this July Fourth travel rush, ferry riders are encouraged to download and use the WSDOT mobile app to see sailing schedules, monitor a real-time map of vessels, check for rider alerts, and more.
Some routes will be sailing on their holiday sailing schedules on Independence Day, July 4th. Customers can note specific holiday sailings as they are marked on the timetables for each route.
Due to a lack of available ferries (PDF 832KB), boarding wait times for customers in vehicles may be longer than previous July Fourth travel periods, especially if car capacity is downsized further for unexpected vessel maintenance.
Please also remember that all illegal fireworks are not allowed on any ferry. This includes missile-type rockets, bottle rockets, M-80s, firecrackers, and any homemade or altered fireworks.
I post this message as information to readers of the Orcasonian and users of the WSF system.
This email was delivered to members of the Ferry Advisory Committee. I expect further announcements to come from WSF, but this is the latest communication that we have.
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“Yesterday, and again today, we’ve had to cancel the Interisland’s final roundtrip (departing Friday Harbor at 5.30pm) due to crewing. This is because of an unfilled relief request for the evening watch through Monday, July 8. We’ll continue trying each day to fill the position, but with a significant uptick in health related relief requests, summer vacations, and the specialized nature of the job needing to be filled, that is likely to be challenging.
To allow our customers as much time as possible to plan, especially over the holiday week, we’ll begin messaging the likelihood of each day’s last roundtrip being cancelled. We understand this will be frustrating for our San Juan Islands customers and apologize for the inconveniences it will cause.”