Lopez Island Mother of 14-year-old on 7-hour Ferry Ride Home Speaks Out (includes many reader comments)
CNL2 EXCLUSIVE: Sunday, June 2, 2024 at 2:26 p.m.
by Jeff Noedel
Karly Leyde, of Lopez Island, is the mother of a 14-year-old who was among the students whose trip home from school in Friday Harbor turned into an arduous seven-hour journey. The incident happened Friday evening. Our interview occurred Saturday afternoon.
Here is a transcript of her remarks, lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
To hear Karly speaking in her own voice, click on the play button on the accompanying audio players.
KARLY LEYDE: My son was in high school and he was stuck on the ferry. These kids are going to public high school (in Friday Harbor). And they get out of school at about 3 o’clock and usually catch the 4:15 (p.m.) ferry that should get home about 4:45 (p.m.). They got home at 11:21 p.m.
They were told they could catch the inter-island ferry. And then the inter-island ferry was canceled. And then the ferry said we have to go from Friday Harbor — all the way to Anacortes. We will not stop at Lopez. The kids asked me multiple times, I called the ferry (terminal) on Lopez. (The terminal employee) called the ferry directly and said please stop for the school kids and let them off. They would not. They went all the way to Anacortes. Then they send another boat from Anacortes to Friday Harbor, and they would not stop at Lopez on the way out. So twice. So they were stuck in Anacortes and said they could catch an 8:55 (p.m. boat to Lopez). (But the 8:55 p.m. boat) didn’t arrive in Anacortes until about 10:15 p.m.
…We’re calling we’re talking to our kids. We’re talking to the ferry. We’re being told over and over, there’s nothing that can be done. And the thing that I would like conveyed is that this is their school bus. This is the way that kids get home from class. If they drove past a child’s street over and over again for eight hours and wouldn’t let them off the bus, that bus driver would be fired. And parents would be in mutiny. It wouldn’t be tolerated. So something has to change… Absolutely (also, for) people who are on vacation and absolutely people who are at doctor’s appointments. But these are school kids.
CNL2: What kind of mood was he in when you finally got home?
KARLY LEYDE: He wasn’t feeling very well. He said, “I want to come home.” We had asked him after school, do you want to try and stay with someone? He said, “No, I just I just want to get home from school, because I don’t feel good.” So to get home eight hours later, it didn’t feel very good.
They didn’t feed them. And they weren’t very kind to them. (The kids) were, you know, politely asking over and over, please, can you get us home. He didn’t feel like there was any real kindness or accommodation. He said there was one person who was just kind and said, “We’re doing what we can.” But they just didn’t do anything to help the kids at all.
The person who was an excellent helper and trying really hard to help was the Lopez ferry terminal worker. And she was doing everything in her power to convince them to stop… I think that ferry operators are treated like pilots, and they can only work so many hours, or they can’t work the next day. But they need a better backup plan.
When you live in the islands, we are used to tolerating the ferries, and we are all pretty much go with the flow. You know, we’ve all missed ferries. We’ve all had ferries be late. We all realize that we have to go with the flow. And we tried to make the best of it every single day. But when children can’t get home from school, that’s unacceptable. In my opinion, it’s taking it too far to have them get home. Seven hours late. It’s seven hours; it’s too long.
(The Friday Harbor terminal agents) are wonderful over there. I think the people at the terminals are really trying hard. And I don’t know who is who is not trying hard. Maybe everyone is that’s very possible. But I just think that the system is broken. And there’s probably, you know, managers and supervisors, and people at every level that are victims of that system to some degree, but somebody has to figure out how to fix it.
There were people on the Lopez ferry dock waiting to go to Orcas, and they had to wait until my son’s boat got here. They were on our ferry dock for like eight hours. Unbelievable. It was crazy.
We all love living here. And it’s a wonderful place to live. But these kinds of situations, they just feel they’re too extreme, you know that where it’s like, it’s taking our flexibility too far.
this is why we should build bridges between the islands
Is this a one off or a regular issue? I’m thinking “one-off”. When they shut the freeway down and we sit for hours waiting, jammed bumper to bumper and my exit is 1 mile away what should the state do for me? Living on an island makes any ferry hiccup seem like someone isn’t trying hard enough to cater to multiple destinations and personal issues. The Anacortes-San Juans have more vessels than any other route and fare box revenue isn’t close to paying for overall costs so there is that tax payer gift to the residents. I am sorry your child didn’t feel well during the issue. Trying to balance multiple destinations with a ferry down is near impossible to make everyone happy. A stop is not just a few minutes and can add another 15-20 minutes of delay to an already late vessel and then the Lopez Ferry Agent would be questioned as to why no one could board for Anacortes. Hmmm – peace out!
Hi Bob. I’m Jeff Noedel, Publisher of CNL2. I NEVER do this, but I want to reply to your post, because I think it is a sincere, good-faith question. And for our friends in Seattle and Olympia, it’s a really important question.
To answer your question, “Is this a one-off?” …Is this something that almost never happens, and therefor not a good indicator of a larger problem, I’d answer with: yes and no.
Yes, it is an outlier ONLY in that it caught-up two dozen unaccompanied minors for seven hours of extreme discomfort. Island kids are tough, and I’m not sure if any were scared. But they were certainly stressed from enduring this ordeal after a full day at school. These kids had a 16-hour day. And they were hungry. And their parents were probably more scared than the kids were. The reason this CNL2 story went viral is that it is exceptionally bad. An outlier among many bad stories.
However, this is not a one-off in the big picture. Yes, Washington state taxpayers subsidize the San Juans routes; fare box doesn’t cover the long haul from Anacortes to the four San Juan County terminals. This is the obligation the State took-on in 1952, when it was written into law that WSF would run “a marine highway,” which includes the San Juans and nine other routes.
It’s not a gift; it’s an obligation.
And it’s not just a moral/political obligation; it’s a legal obligation. See RCW Title 47, Chapter 47.56 Toll bridges, tunnels, and ferries.
The marine highway system is how the islands supermarkets are stocked with food, and how some incredible agricultural products of the islands get to the mainland. The marine highway is how people get to their medical appointments in Bellingham and Seattle. And on and on. The state does not take care of San Juan County roads, the County does that. All we ask is that WSDOT run the marine highway effectively, reliably.
Across Washington, and perhaps across the nation, there is a widespread misunderstanding of the San Juans. The perception is that the island is largely wealthy Americans and Canadians who maintain second homes here, and fly in on private jets or sail in on yachts to summer at the fine harbors here. And while there are wealthy people with second homes here (who also tend to be excellent citizens here, supporting island non-profits), they are the minority. The majority of residents of the San Juans live here year around, and a very significant proportion are middle class, with many low- and fixed-income folks. If the airport and harbors are for the wealthy, the lumbering old ferry boats are for the rest of us. (I’ll come back to the old boat part in a minute.)
But first, let’s discuss taxpayer subsidies: There are countless examples of how a state government uses pooled money from all taxpayers to support specific programs that serve specific populations. For instance, here’s another WSDOT program which all taxpayer support, but benefits a subset of the state’s residents: the ultra-expensive SR-520 “lids” being built in connecting the Montlake/Capitol Hill neighborhoods in Seattle. These are marvels of engineering and landscape architecture. There will be five (I think) when they’re done (three on the Seattle side, plus Evergreen Point and Yarrow Point lids). The most recent lids are costing Washington taxpayers 1/2 billion dollars each, I believe? Please correct me if I’m wrong. A cynic would dismiss them as half-billion-dollar bus stops, but they obviously were justified by the legislature and Governor. (Note: the cost of the SR-520 lids is not far from the cost of rebuilding a major chunk of the WSF fleet.) And that’s without getting into the massive transfers of resources from urban tax collections to rural needs in Eastern Washington. It’s just what states do; it’s how states work. But enough of the subsidy debate.
Back to the old boats. The San Juans is where the hand me downs go just before they are obsoleted and sold off. While islanders love the old boats, they break down too much. You may not know how often they break down up here, Bob. It’s why the demand for more new diesel boats seems to have started up here. No population within the State of Washington is more environmentally conscious than the San Juans. It’s a religion up here. But even some of the most ardent environmentalists here are open to two more new diesel boats if it means people can see doctors, we can keep our economy working, and kids can get to and from school safely and predictably.
The old boats (a 1967 model and the fleet’s only 1959 model) are part of the problem. But WSF’s Steve Nevey also explains that the crewing of the boats has become very difficult. Whomever you want to blame for so many licensed captains, mates, and engineers severing from WSF employ in 2021, that loss of staffing is something we’ve never recovered from here.
So is Friday’s stranding of two dozen Lopez Island kids in the cold, dingy Anacortes terminal throughout the evening a distorted view of the suffering here? No, it’s just a new symbol of it. The latest of other outrages, including the near ruining of a recent annual County Fair, and the deep damage the 2023 Memorial Day debacle did to San Juan County’s tourism economy. We have multiple symbols of WSF failure. The kids are just the newest one.
And there’s a silent tragedy happening here now. The inter-island service is so unreliable, many Countians have reduced or eliminated visits between islands to see friends. The islands are our neighborhoods. And they’re becoming siloed because WSF strands inter-island customers far too often.
2023 was a horrendous year for WSF on-time performance and overall reliability. The stats went through the floor. Leaders in Olympia wrestled with branding and spin, an effort rooted in political expediency. Republicans were eager to call it a crisis. Democrat leaders resisted the “c word,” but now interestingly are admitting it WAS a crisis which is now over.
And that, Bob, is why the story about the kids struck such a nerve here. Because the crisis with WSF here is still a crisis. And it simultaneously angers and scares us to hear pronouncements from state leaders that the crisis is behind us. WSF service may look a little better in some of the Seattle routes, especially say Bainbridge. (And congrats, BI, on the two beautiful and extremely expensive new terminals on both ends of the Bainbridge route! They are beautiful terminals. Ahem.)
But up here is the corner, it’s still a crisis.
Jeff,
Thank you for what may be the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the broader situation that has ever been written.
Understand your points but don’t forget that all mainland roads are tax subsidized also. I’m tired of hearing that the ferry fares don’t completely pay for the ferries. Your taxes paid are not paying wholly for your use of public roads either. And when there is a “toll” on the mainland roads there is usually an alternative to get from Point A to Point B without paying the toll. We don’t have that alternative and MUST pay the fare in addition to our taxes for transportation. The ferries are our “road” just like the freeways and surface streets are your road. And yes, 7 hours is probably a one off. But we routinely have ferries cancelled, late by well over 1-2 hours, and sometimes completely cancelled, causing rescheduling of appointments, sometimes even requiring sleeping in your car or getting a hotel. —those are not one offs. They are routine. WSF and our government need to do better.
This is far beyond a “one off“ or hiccup. This is a disintegrating system that Olympia has refused to recognize as infrastructure. They failed to plan for baby boomers retiring in huge numbers in the past 10 years and going forward. And antiquated boats, as much as I love them, need to be replaced boat by boat with a newer fleet. Wake up Olympia, we are drowning here
This is not a One-Off situation. Dozens of kids attend school on San Juan Island from other islands. Ferries are canceled or delayed almost daily. Students have been stranded many times before, Orcas kids have been sent to Anacortes and made to wait for a return boat many, many times. It is an outrage that our ferry service operates so poorly – especially when South puget sound boats much more efficiently. Our WSF administration need to prioritize San Juan Island sailing routes and boat staff, because this isn’t just our commute to school and work, it is a literal life line for medical care. It is a public highway. Imagine I-90 closing being delayed for 8+ hours as a standard operation. Imagine Vashon ferries being delayed 8+ hours. Give the residents of San Juan County the dignity of a functioning roadway.
The WSDOT should be held responsible just like the airlines are . If an airline cancels a flight & can’t get you on the next the airline co. Has to pay for your hotel room & food vouchers etc . There is no excuse for the ferry system to be running like they are . Serious lives are at stake here.
As a very frequent ferry rider this is absolutely ridiculous! It’s a government run system so it’s perfect..😂👎🖕
Well the next time this happens call Paraclete charters they stepped to the plate and bailed out the ferry system to get the kids from orcas to there state track and field meets and did that on there dime that’s a hell of a fine advertisement when the state fails again and again
We are in the age of black and white, if it isn’t on the computer screen it isn’t allowed. Common sense has gone out the window. Zeros and ones, no flexibility, no humanity. If you watch SciFi movies, robots and computers always try to snuff out humans because we make stupid decisions yet humans win almost every time. Our irrational, emotional, gut feelings and decisions always seem to win over computers. But not in this case. Sad.
I have no idea what you mean.