WSF Weekly Report | Running the numbers; Colman clock; Maritime Blue’s One Ocean Week

||| FROM STEVE NEVEY for WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES |||

A message from Steve

It’s easy to become discouraged by the challenges facing Washington State Ferries. Aging vessels, financial constraints and service disruptions are very real problems, and customers sometimes question whether things are getting better. It’s easy to focus on what’s going wrong instead of what is going right. Last week, October 12-18, we completed 99.26% of our 2,850 scheduled sailings. Every cancelled sailing matters to the customers whose plans are disrupted. We have more work to do to improve reliability, and I don’t want to minimize the frustration that comes when we fall short.

It’s worth reflecting on what those numbers represent. Every week, our employees safely complete thousands of sailings, connecting communities across Puget Sound. Over the course of a year, we carry more than 20 million passengers, seven million during this summer season alone. That’s a remarkable undertaking, particularly given the age of our fleet and the challenges we’ve faced rebuilding our workforce. Behind every one of those sailings are people doing their jobs, often in difficult conditions, to keep Washington moving. The work our employees do deserves recognition, even when the headlines understandably focus on the sailings that don’t happen.

A quiet moment at Friday Harbor, where teamwork keeps our ferries moving.

We’ve come a long way over the last few years. We’ve transitioned from 15- to 18-boat domestic service, we’ve rebuilt much of our workforce, and we finally have new ferries under construction. None of that happened by accident. It’s taken an enormous amount of work by people across this organization, and while we still have a long way to go, it’s important to recognize that progress.

We still have some significant challenges ahead, and I know progress doesn’t always feel like progress when you’re at a terminal waiting for a delayed ferry.  But I believe there are good reasons to be hopeful about the future of Washington State Ferries. This hope comes from seeing what we’ve already accomplished and knowing what we’re capable of doing next. I remain convinced we can build the ferry system Washington needs and deserves.

Historic Colman Clock unveiled at Seattle Ferry Terminal

A familiar piece of Seattle waterfront history is back in our Seattle Ferry Terminal. The historic Colman Clock was reinstalled this week after years in storage. Built by the E. Howard Clock Co. of Boston, the clock arrived at Colman Dock in 1908 and stood atop a 72-foot tower, serving as a navigational beacon for ships entering Puget Sound. The tower was damaged in 1912, when the steamship Alameda struck it. The clock was later restored and moved to a new tower, where it remained until 1936. After many years in storage, the Port of Seattle purchased the clock in 1984 and partnered with the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors to restore it. In 2019, it was removed during construction of the new terminal. 

The clock has been restored once again, thanks to the team at our Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility on Bainbridge Island, who installed and built the clock’s display.  A special thank you goes to horologist Woodbay Co. LLC who repaired the historic timepiece and its dials, including the creation of a new auto-winding system. Its return marks another connection to Colman Dock’s early days and preserves an important piece of Seattle’s waterfront history for generations of ferry riders to enjoy.

Passengers traveling through the Seattle Multimodal Ferry Terminal at Colman can check out the newly installed historic Colman Clock.

Maritime Blue’s One Ocean Week goes below deck onboard Wenatchee

While onboard Wenatchee folks learned about what goes into operating and maintaining a hybrid-electric vessel.

Sailing stats for week of Oct. 12-18

For the week of Oct. 12-18, we completed 99.26% of our 2,850 scheduled sailings. This figure is separate from on-time performance. Of the 29 cancellations, 2 were due to schedule resets (when a boat is so far behind schedule, we cancel a sailing to get it back on schedule, providing predictability for customers), 6 were due to vessel-related issues, 8 were due to crewing and 13 for other miscellaneous reasons.

For comparison, during a similar week last year (Oct. 13-19, 2025), we completed 98.30% of our 3,059 scheduled sailings. Of the 53 cancellations, 25 were due to crewing, 21 were due to vessel-related issues, 4 were due to weather, 2 were due to other miscellaneous reasons, and 1 was due to an emergency.

Customer kudos

“Today, Oct 19th the 10:20 a.m. ferry arrived on time in Friday Harbor, left on time at 10:20 a.m. for Anacortes. The ferry made an unscheduled stop on Lopez to pick up a bus load of students. The announcement explained what was happening and why and noted the stop would be very short, it was. We arrived on time in Anacortes. The crew was courteous and an example was seeing a crew member helping a woman to get back to her car. I really appreciated how everything went smoothly, the effort to not have any undue delay was very much appreciated… thank you to the captain and crew that day.”

-Anacortes/San Juan Islands route customer