PORT TOWNSEND – Two-boat ferry service for the Port Townsend-Keystone route resumed on Saturday after it had operated with only one ferry for more than a week.
The MV Nisqually was back in service on the route, joining the MV Quinault, which had been working alone.
The disruption was caused by a ferry crash at the Mukilteo landing last Friday.
The Nisqually, which shares the Port Townsend-Keystone run with the Quinault now that the MV Klickitat is in drydock for routine maintenance, was shuffled off on June 1 to the San Juan Island run to help cover for a ferry taken out of services after it clipped pilings during a landing at Mukilteo.
That left the route to the Quinault, cutting scheduled runs in half and causing 90-minute waits at the Port Townsend and Keystone terminals.
“Obviously going from a 45-minute wait to an hour-and-a-half wait, we had some backlogs,” said Tim Caldwell, general manager of the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce.
“As far as traffic goes, it was early enough in the season and, with the efforts of the Washington State Ferries to get it back as quickly as possible, we did not see that big of a delay.
“From my own watching, it never got significantly backed up to where it was more than a one-boat wait.
“I suppose it is all’s well that ends well.”
The ferries are important both for tourist travel and for the 6 percent to 8 percent of the traffic of the ferry that is commuters.
“It will get us back on the summer schedule now,” Caldwell said.
“But this is important for commerce too.
“I’m sure that it will make life easier to have both boats running.”
Caldwell said the incident was evidence of a need for new boats.
“This leads us to the issue that we need new ferries, and that it is several years away,” Caldwell said.
“This has shown how vulnerable the Keystone-Port Townsend route is.”
Although service has resumed, some normally scheduled runs will be canceled because of low tides.
The majority of the cancellations will be on Tuesday between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.
Other cancellations are scheduled at 6:30 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. on Wednesday, 6:30 a.m. through 10:35 a.m. on Thursday, 8 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. on Friday, 8 a.m. through 10:15 a.m. on Saturday, and 9:30 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, June 16.
Service on the Mukilteo-Clinton route was suspended temporarily early June 1 while State Ferries worked to repair damage to the vehicle slip in Mukilteo caused when the MV Cathlamet landed hard and damaged a large group of pilings, called a dolphin.
The impact of the landing caused the dolphin to collapse, blocking the entrance to the landing slip.
