UPDATED: Many San Juan County residents thankful for smooth ferry service during County Fair week

UPDATED: Tuesday, August 20, 2024
by Jeff Noedel

It was like a thing of the past: reliable service in the San Juans provided by Washington State Ferries from the day before the Fair (set-up day) through the day after the Fair, with accumulating lateness in some trips as Monday wore on.

One candidate for San Juan County Council longs for the days when WSF service was “boring.” Last week, he got his wish. In the 2024 Fair week — against the backdrop of a tidal wave of cancelations in the San Juans in June and July — WSF delivered passengers, vehicles, and livestock to the County fairgrounds generally on time, without the cancelation of a single sailing.

No new vessels were introduced into the fleet last week, and strife between the engineers’ union and the State Office of Financial Management is unresolved. But there are many dynamics that can cause crewing and mechanical problems; some we can see and many we’ll never know of.

How long reliability on the San Juans route will last is unknowable.

ORIGINAL STORY: Saturday, August 17, 2024

Many San Juan County residents — as well as fairgoers and vendors who travel from afar to be at the San Juan County Fair — are taking note of the smooth operation of the San Juan routes operated by Washington State Ferries for the first half of Fair week.

No sailings have been canceled during Fair week so far (which includes the Wednesday set-up day), and on-time-performance has been better during the Fair period. There were some late sailings on Thursday, but those appeared to be related to heavy fog. Early morning #3 boat service was in jeopardy today, but WSF put a crew together and service was not affected. On-time performance was even improved, with announced delays in the 30-minute range.

Fingers are crossed that service will adhere to schedules through Monday, when Fair exhibitors, and farmers and ranchers who exhibited or bought animals at auction, transport their livestock home to Orcas, Lopez, and Shaw Islands, or the mainland.

San Juan County residents have become acutely aware of the dissatisfaction among members and leadership of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (MEBA) with contract offers from the Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM). MEBA members have been working large blocks of overtime, and MEBA leadership is accusing the OFM of actions that will have the effect of running-off experienced chief engineers and oilers.

Exhaustion of engine room personnel has been cited in some canceled sailings due to lack of crews.

Last week, Washington State Ferries’ Director of Planning John Vezina announced that they were sending additional crew members to Friday Harbor to be on standby if needed to keep crews staffed to Coast Guard minimums. It was an unusual move; Vezina held it up as an example of WSF’s ability to think outside the box. For five days, WSF temporarily added:

• One Ordinary-sailor and one Able-bodied sailor (Deck) on each of the vessel’s shifts
• One Oiler (Engine Room) from 8.30 a.m. until 8.30 p.m.

That relief staffing is believed to still be in Friday Harbor if needed Sunday.

Of course, there is hope that the broader service reliability problems of this summer are coming to a close, but systemic challenges with an aging fleet persist, and crucial labor contracts are still unsettled.

The pleasing service during the first 3/4ths of Fair week punctures an oppressive trend of escalating service defaults through the summer. On Tuesday, San Juan County government released data it compiled stating…

• In just 3-1/2 weeks in July (July 1 through 24), WSF canceled 171 sailings in the San Juans.
• Eighty percent of those cancelations were on the inter-island route.

In July, Tom Bridge of Crane Island provided 247 passenger-trips between islands when the WSF inter-island service was canceled. That’s approximately 35 percent of the entire 700 total people transports he had performed over the past year. Bridge began to provide $40 trips at the end of the 2023 San Juan County Fair, during an inter-island outage. Bridge is a Coast Guard licensed captain who operates a motor boat that seats up to six passengers. Access to his service is promoted by Community Water Taxi, based on Orcas Island.

Regarding the huge spike in demand for Bridge’s inter-island people moving in July, Bridge told CNL2 today that, as a sole operator, at times in recent months, “I had to ration my service during this time. With another vessel and operator, or a larger vessel, we could easily have done 400 rides in July instead of the 245.”

Money from the State to support expansion of the private sector ferrying services like Bridge’s has been requested by the San Juan County Council through Chair and District 3 Representative Jane Fuller. Details of the request of Governor Jay Inslee have not yet been released, but it is also believed to include a request to underwrite private sector small barge service on the San Juan routes for commercial and county trucks when inter-island service is canceled. Fuller said she anticipates an answer from the Governor’s office any day.