Tag Archives: Ferries

Bainbridge residents invited to ferry meeting

Bainbridge residents are encouraged to attend a community meeting that will include long-range planning, new vessel construction, route-specific issues, liquefied natural gas and other topics will be discussed at a Washington State Ferries meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, June 23.

The meeting will be held in Suite 210 of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, located at 100 Ravine Lane.

The ferry system hosts community meetings twice a year and also takes input from customers and the community through its Ferry Advisory Committees.

Bremerton’s meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 2, in the Kitsap Conference Center’s Oyster Room, located on 100 Washington St.

 

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Bainbridge police warn Subaru Legacy, Honda Accord, Civic owners

Due to a recent uptick in crime, Bainbridge Island Police Chief Matthew Hamner is urging owners of older Honda Accords and Civics, as well as owners of Subaru Legacy cars, to ensure that their vehicle is locked when they park it near or at the Bainbridge ferry terminal.

Models of the vehicles from 1995 to 2005 are being targeted the most.

Investigators believe the suspect or suspects drive to Bainbridge in a stolen car, park the vehicle on the island, walk on a Seattle ferry as a passenger and return later to Bainbridge to steal a different vehicle.

Police believe the thieves are able to steal the Honda and Subaru vehicles with little trouble because of their knowledge of the cars’ equipment.

Hamner said owners of these car models who park within proximity of the ferry need to be especially diligent in locking their cars and aware of their surroundings.

“Sometimes a few simple steps to secure your belongings can be enough to deter theft,” said Hamner, who has strong leads in the case.

According to the Puget Sound Regional Council, the Seattle-Bainbridge route in 2013 transported 6.3 million people, including 3 million walk-on passengers – more than any other Washington State Ferry route.

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Meet the city manager, talk ferries in Winslow tonight

Civic-minded islanders have a busy dance card tonight. They can choose between a potluck and discussion with new City Manager Doug Schulze or a Washington State Ferries community meeting.

Discussion group VillageSpeak will hold a dinner forum with Schulze beginning at 6:30

p.m. at OfficeXpats in the Bainbridge Pavilion. The conversation will include opening remarks by the city manager, a moderated discussion and a Q&A session with the audience.

The event is free but attendees are encouraged to bring a dish to share and a $5 donation. A standing reception will follow the discussion at 8:30 p.m. Schulze (pictured) joined the city on Nov. 5. He previously served as manager of Normandy Park.

Another meeting will take place across town at the same time. WSF brings its traveling community outreach tour to Bainbridge at 6 p.m. in the Art Museum.

Ferries chief David Moseley will discuss the upcoming legislative session, staffing issues and other topics. This is a good time for ferry riders to bring forward questions and complaints. WSF already held a meeting in Bremerton, where proposed service cuts are a hot topic.

Tad Sooter photos

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PHOTOS: Take a ride on the Virginia V


Head over HERE to see my photo gallery of Sunday’s circumnavigation of Bainbridge Island aboard the Virginia V, the only steam-powered ferry still chugging around Puget Sound.

The Virginia V makes an annual trip around Bainbridge as part of a fundraiser for the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum. They had a sell-out crowd this year and plan to carry on the tradition into 2011 (in case you missed it this time around).

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Here’s what the new ferries will look like…

Washington State Ferries has the final design for its new 144-car ferries. That’s it up top.

There’s no funding yet to build them, but the finished design puts Todd Pacific Shipyards in a ready position for the time when the money does materialize.

WSF expects to get funding from the state Legislature to build one or two of the ferries between 2011 and 2013. Its long-range plan calls for adding two 144-car boats to the fleet in 2014. One would replace the 87-car Evergreen State and the second would allow WSF to shift another 87-car ferry to a backup role. The only backup now is the 37-car Hiyu.

Five more 144-car ferries are projected to eventually join the fleet after 2027.

Click here to see the full story.

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Video of the Virginia V


The Sun produced a short video of Mosquito Fleet survivor Virginia V’s visit to South Kitsap last week. You can find a related story and photo gallery here.

The Virginia V makes a regular stop on the island for an annual summertime Bainbridge Island Historical Museum fundraiser.

I went on last year’s four-hour excursion. The boat was loaded with island history buffs and a few BI newbies who wanted to get to know their island better. Historian Andy Price and former Washington secretary of state (and island son) Ralph Munro MC’d the tour.

Click here for my story about last year’s trip.

And click here for a blog post of extras I couldn’t fit into the story.

The next trip is July 26. It sold out last year, so make sure to call the museum at (206) 842-2773 to make a reservation.

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Bainbridge-Seattle route named one of the best ferry rides in America

ferryrideBudget Travel magazine put the Bainbridge-Seattle route on its list of the most beautiful ferry rides in the United States.

Here’s what the mag had to say about the Bainbridge trip:

“Glide past sailboats and cruise liners on this quick hop across Puget Sound, with views of Seattle’s skyline and the snow-covered flanks of the Cascade Range. Weather permitting, you can even make out the 14,410-foot peak of Mount Rainier, about 100 miles away. Disembark on Bainbridge and spend the day exploring the island’s hiking trails and downtown cafés (try the caramel pecan French toast at Café Nola), then time your return trip to watch the dusk settle over Puget Sound, and the city itself.”

So put down your newspaper (unless it’s the Sun) on your next trip and take in one of the best views around.

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History makes way for advertising on state ferries

Ads on state ferries dominate car deck walls, spill from ceiling to floor in stairwells and even crowd tables so’s you can gaze at Ichiro or organic rice pilaf while sipping your coffee.

Now the ads have crowded out the historical photos that lined the passenger deck.

Here’s blogger and longtime journalist Chuck Taylor’s take:

Puget Sound ferry riders, remember those wonderful historical photos that adorned the walls of the three Jumbo Mark II Class boats, the MV Puyallup, MV Tacoma, and MV Wenatchee? The selection of nicely framed blowups was appropriate to each vessel — old-time pics of those cities’ distant past.

Well, they’re gone, replaced by wall-sized advertising, presumably because Washington State Ferries is navigating the economic storm that has state government listing to starboard.

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Vehicle tax for ferries fizzles in Olympia

Despite calls from transportation experts for a statewide tax to maintain the ferry system, the idea appears to have gained little traction in Olympia.

“I don’t think you’ll see an (motor vehicle excise tax) or anything else that the Transportation Commission put forward,” said Rep. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, who attended a briefing Monday about the state’s long-term ferry plan. “We’re looking at the transportation budget to see how we can accelerate the boat-building process without revenue increases. If we don’t have new state taxes and we’re serious about the ferry system, then we need some agreement on making the ferry system a priority for the first time in a decade.”

Postponing highway projects to meet ferry system needs by well-placed legislators, Rolfes added.

Read Ed Friedrich’s story about the the proposed ferry funding here.

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WSF can’t even sell ferries as scrap?

Declining steel prices have put on hold the sale of four ferries moored off Winslow.

The 80-year-old Illahee, Nisqually, Klickitat and Quinault were slated for purchase by Environmental Recycling Systems. The company planned to tow the ferries to Mexico for use as scrap. But slumping value of steel has ERS second-guessing its $500,000 purchase.

Washington State Ferries is now seeking new bids for the boats, which were pulled from service in late 2007 after the U.S. Coast Guard discovered their rusting hulls. The boats have been awaiting their fate at WSF’s Eagle Harbor maintenance yard for over a year.

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Woman missing from ferry may have killed herself

The Bellevue woman who went missing aboard a Bainbridge-bound ferry earlier this month may have killed herself, her husband said in an email to her work colleagues.

The Seattle Times reported today that Lynn Stafford-Yilmaz’s co-workers at Bellevue Community College, where Stafford-Yilmaz taught English, received an e-mail from her husband noting that she had “decided to end her life” before embarking on her late-night trip to Bainbridge.

A friend of Stafford-Yilmaz forwarded to the Times an e-mail from Mustafa Yilmaz that, in part, read: “Considering the situation, the note she left behind and the evidence, her family believes that Lynn decided to end her life that night. This was very unexpected for all of us.”

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