— from KOMO News —
The Hiyu, the smallest ferry in the fleet, will change hands Wednesday when it is towed from Eagle Harbor. The vessel sold for $150,000. A company called Menagerie Inc. intends to make the 50-year–old ferry a floating entertainment venue.
The Hiyu is only 162-feet-long. It was in use from 1967 until 2016, but its small size, high maintenance costs and lack of accommodations for disabled people proved it could no longer be used.
The Hiyu has served several different routes, including the Point Defiance/Tahlequah and San Juan Islands inter-island routes. After being put in storage in the late 1990s for over a decade, the Hiyu in recent years served a relief vessel.
“Baby” Hiyu is scheduled to be towed from WSF’s Eagle Harbor shipyard at 2 pm. Wednesday, February 8. The public can see the ferry travel through the Lake Washington Ship Canal and the Chittenden Locks in Ballard on its way to its new home on Lake Union.
SOURCE: KOMO News
“Little Toot” served us well. Regular travelers between the islands surely remember those times when a “BIG” ferry broke down and the Hiyu came to our rescue. The crews were remarkable and inventive is squeezing an impossible number of cards and trucks onto the tiny ferry. The Hiyu raced around Shaw at a heart-stopping eight knots resulting in some angst when the tide was running the wrong way through Wasp Pass. The bathrooms were minimal, the galley non-existent and the seating was cozy.
The final retirement of Little Toot reminded me of the last trips of the Vashon. That too was a great ferry with a lot of history and character. The world moves on and the special aspects of our past get too easily lost in the coming of the future.