WSF Weekly Report | Reservations, rescue, roundtables, & raves

||| FROM PATTY RUBSTELLO for WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES |||

Vehicle reservations reopen Friday, Dec. 17

We’re nearly three weeks into trialing a return to a full four-boat fall schedule on our Anacortes/San Juan Islands route and while it hasn’t been perfect, we’ve been able to reliably crew well over 90% of our sailings there. Therefore, if we’re still able to reliably crew all four vessels there next week, we’ll reopen vehicle reservations at 7 a.m. Friday, Dec. 17, for travel throughout our winter season from Jan. 2, to March 26, 2022. That will serve as what is normally our two-month release, which we postponed due to systemwide schedule adjustments because of crewing challenges. That means on Dec. 17, we’ll open 90% of available space for our Port Townsend/Coupeville run and 30% for our Anacortes/San Juan Islands route, where another 30% will be released two weeks prior to each sailing date and a final 30% two days prior. The remaining 10% is held for standby vehicles.

In addition to recruiting new vessel crews, we’re hiring many new terminal employees. We’re currently training 15 people who will enter our workforce Dec. 19.

If, as we near on Dec. 17, it appears that we are no longer able to reliably crew all four vessels in the San Juan Islands, our reservations release will need to be delayed at least another couple of weeks as we either continue the four-boat trial or return our Anacortes/San Juan Islands route to a three-boat schedule, which has been slightly modified since that last time we operated it to decrease long service gaps at some terminals. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work hard to provide more reliable service. I’ll provide another update on reservations next week.

Townhalls with ferry-served community legislators

As we build back from historic crewing challenges, the governor, his staff, and legislators, specifically those representing ferry-served communities and those leading the state house and senate transportation committees, have been involved in seeking solutions. In the last few weeks, our staff has been invited to four legislative virtual townhalls representing districts from Vashon Island, Fauntleroy, Southworth, Bremerton, Bainbridge, Kingston, Clinton, Coupeville, Anacortes and the San Juan Islands.  We appreciate those communities’ legislators giving us the opportunity to talk directly with their constituents, providing information and answering questions. We look forward to continuing this collaborative work with legislators when their next session convenes on Jan. 10.

Government Relations Director John Vezina and Chief of Staff Nicole McIntosh in a townhall with Sen. Christine Rolfes, Rep. Drew Hansen and Rep. Tarra Simmons.

Yakima crew saves person overboard

For the second week in a row, our crews rescued a person out of the water. On Monday, our Yakima crew immediately responded to a person overboard at Friday Harbor and recovered the individual out of the water within a few minutes. Thank you to all our crewmembers for making all of us at WSF so proud!

“[…] I arrived an hour early to catch the 4:30 pm Anacortes to Friday Harbor ferry on Monday, October 4, 2021. […] When I stopped at the ferry terminal kiosk and gave the lady [Ticket Seller Brenda Richards] my reservation, she found my reservation in seconds. […] She told me that one ferry was not in service. She handed me the new, revised ferry schedule, and gave me instructions as to which ferry line to drive into. Her instructions were very clear. But, because of my brain injury, when I heard that one ferry boat was down, I did not comprehend anything else she said. […]

I do not know whether or not you train employees to deal with people with disabilities, but she was excellent!!! First of all, she treated me with total respect and did not talk down to me, like I was stupid because I did not understand her instructions. She slowed down to repeat the instructions, but not like I was a child or stupid. She was very respectful. She was not in the least bit annoyed that she had to repeat her instructions. I cannot express enough how understanding she was and how professionally she handled the situation, and how much that meant to me.”

-Anacortes/San Juan Islands route customer