||| from Washington State Ferries |||

On Labor Day, the crew of Puyallup saved the lives of multiple boaters during two separate rescues! The first involved a man suffering from heart problems on a nearby pleasure craft by our Kingston terminal. Our crew quickly deployed its rescue boat with Second Mate Jesse Rongo and Able-Bodied Seaman Cory Weitz aboard. The two of them began chest compressions and used an AED before safely navigating the vessel back to shore where medical responders took over.

Jesse and Cory were back in the same rescue boat a few hours later to assist in saving five people and two dogs after their vessel capsized off Edmonds. Thank you to all of our highly skilled crewmembers for your commitment to safety!

Photo of rescue boat being deployed from the ferry Puyallup

Puyallup crews deploy the ferry’s rescue boat to assist in a rescue off Edmonds.  Photo courtesy Janine Harles on the Edmonds Beacon Facebook page.

Labor Day weekend ridership down 35% compared to last year

Thanks to those who limited their ferry travel over Labor Day weekend. Although we carried the most people since the pandemic began with more than 300,000 riders from Thursday through Tuesday, that’s 35% down from 2019. As a reminder, some routes are still operating on modified schedules dependent on our COVID Response Service Plan and most counties remain under essential or limited non-essential travel orders under the Safe Start reopening plan.

Line graph of Washington State Ferries ridership from mid-February through Labor Day weekend

Saturday, Sept. 5, was our busiest day since Feb. 22, with nearly 65,000 riders. That’s still much lower than the same day in 2019, when we had close to 100,000 customers.

I’d also like to thank all our employees who worked over the Labor Day weekend to make sure our customers got to their destinations safely

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