At Anacortes Terminal Last Wednesday Night: Orcas Resident Told ‘No More Cars on Standby’ Only to Leave Car Behind, Walk-on, and Photograph Less-than-full Ferry

A CNL2 VIDEO IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE

At approximately 5:26 p.m. on Wednesday, July 17, Washington State Ferries alerted subscribers of alerts for San Juan routes that the #1 Samish’s final roundtrip of the evening was canceled “due to (a) shortage of Coast Guard documented crew.”

Then at approximately 6:04 p.m., WSF issued an update to the original alert stating, “Update – We are now not taking anymore (sic) standby customers this evening for Orcas or Lopez from Anacortes.”

To frequent users of the Anacortes terminal, this announcement seemed different. Frequent customers who are hoping to squeeze onto a vessel on standby are accustomed to hearing from toll booth agents just how likely or unlikely they are to actually succeed in getting on from the standby. Sometimes toll booth agents are rather adamant about the very low odds of driving on, but some drivers still opt to wait and hope for unexpected room for their vehicle — sometimes because they have no better alternatives.

Darlene Talbot of Orcas Island and a good friend were returning from a vacation in Las Vegas Wednesday night. They were prepared to go standby when they reached the Anacortes lot because Darlene had been unable to secure a reservation two weeks out. She simply did not want to spend time on vacation waiting in a phone queue for a reservation two days out.

When they got to the Anacortes terminal, this time they were not given the opportunity to take their chances. This time their request to go standby was refused. They were told by a ticketing agent that no more vehicles would be allowed into the standby lanes. They turned around, parked their car, and walked on the boat — only to find many open spaces that could have held many vehicles.

Darlene’s friend invested half of the next day as a walk-on back to Anacortes to pick up the car and drive it on the ferry to get the car home to Orcas Island.

On Monday, CNL2 asked WSF for a comment on the previous Wednesday night’s situation. WSF’s response was as follows: “This is not a policy or protocol, but an operational decision on the ground by people doing the best they can in a very challenging and dynamic situation.”

Below is an interview of Darlene Talbot conducted on Orcas Island on Thursday, July 18. This CNL2 video is approximately 4-1/2 minutes in duration.