HomeMy WebLinkAbout071624 email - Clinton_Mukilteo and Fauntleroy_Vashon_Southworth Weekend ServiceALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Good evening.
As we shared this weekend, the Yakima, currently assigned to the Anacortes/San Juan Islands routes, is out of service. To restore four-boat service to the islands, we moved the Chelan,
one of the boats then assigned to the Clinton/Mukilteo route, north, replacing it with the smaller 90-vehicle Sealth, which was operating as an unscheduled “bonus boat” on the Fauntleroy/Southworth/
Vashon route. This is a downsizing of capacity on the Clinton/Mukilteo route but restored two-boat service. Now, with a major event on Vashon Island this weekend, if the Yakima hasn’t
returned to service, allowing the Chelan to return to Clinton/Mukilteo, we’ll move the Sealth to the Triangle, putting Clinton/Mukilteo on one-boat service for this coming weekend.
The Vashon Strawberry Festival <https://business.vashonchamber.com/events/details/vashon-strawberry-festival-68964> is Vashon Island’s biggest event of the year, drawing thousands of
visitors. While there have been service disruptions on the Clinton/Mukilteo route, and knowing the Langley Shakespeare Festival starts the same weekend, it’s largely been on two-boat
service for more than a year and the festival runs through early September. Alternatively, the Triangle has been on reduced two-boat service since the pandemic and last Saturday, due
to crewing, only one boat. We do everything possible to avoid service disruptions on summer weekends, but if we don’t have the vessels available to operate, we must make difficult
decisions.
We hope the Yakima will be back in service in time to move the Chelan south and the Sealth back to the Triangle, but to allow people to plan accordingly, we will notify customers to
the possibility of one-boat service on Mukilteo/Clinton through passenger alerts and social media. We know, like this weekend’s Strawberry Festival, the Whidbey Island Fair begins next
Thursday and is Whidbey’s busy weekend and we will have a second boat back on the route for that event.
Please let me know if you have questions.
Best,
Hadley
Hadley Rodero (she/her)
Deputy Director – Planning, Customer & Government Relations
Washington State Ferries/WSDOT Ferries Division
hadley.rodero@wsdot.wa.gov <mailto:hadley.rodero@wsdot.wa.gov>
mobile | 206-818-3813