Finally Under Construction!
Hooray! Hooray! Today is the day!
August 5th, 2026, steel is cut for the Wishkah. WSF’s new ferries are officially under construction! And about time too. We’ve got three boats on borrowed time and/or life support.
Governor Ferguson has forged ahead and exercised the option for the third boat because really, it was never an “option.” You can’t build two boats and just expect them to cover for three that need to be retired. Even with the third boat, that still gives WSF a net gain of 0 boats for the future.
The legislature needs to realize that we’ve moved beyond the “need new boats” stage to the “have to have new boats” or the system is going to collapse on their watch.
Meanwhile, Seattle and WSF survived the world cup without any major issues, and on Independence Day weekend, the ferry system hauled 390,000 passengers from the 2nd to the 6th.
Well this is a bad day…
Courtesy City News/Instagram: @adam_w_coast
Waiting in ferry lines is never fun at the best of times. The heat, and, of late, the wild fire smoke, all make for a potentially miserable experience while waiting from get to point A to point B on our favorite method of transportation.
However, having a car burst into flames in the waiting line is something that makes for a mildly annoying wait to a potentially dangerous one, as was the case at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal on August first.
Fortunately, the response was swift and firefighters got the blaze extinguished quickly. No injuries were reported.
There was some delay to the sailings as the mess was cleaned up and the wreck hauled away, but given the crowded conditions at the terminal, things could have gone much worse.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Cordova isn’t happy…
“Basically a whole winter without ferry service – you can imagine what that can do to a community that has no other road access. Prince William Sound seems to be bearing a larger than average share of the maintenance impacts, and our community cannot bear it,” said Cathy Renfeldt, executive director of the Cordova Chamber of Commerce.
The comment was made in response to the proposed winter schedule for the Alaska Marine Highway, which proposes a five month gap in service to Prince William Sound.
Understandably, Cordovans aren’t happy with the prospect of no winter service with leaves them with one option–to fly in and out of the city that has no other road access. Of particular concern is the Cordova School District, as the lack of service could mean a cancellation to the winter sports season for students.
Community leaders in Cordova said local businesses are considering whether or not stay open or just shut down for the season. In addition, leaders also pointed out service gap would prevent critical travel needs, such as leaving town for medical care or having contractors in for ongoing maintenance projects.
Once upon a time…
You traveled from Port Townsend to Keystone on this little all-wood ferry, the M/V Defiance.
A slightly older sister to the Skansonia (which sank at her mooring on Lake Union back in June before being pumped out and floated again with the help of the Seattle Fire Department) the ferry was retired in 1971 after a near 20-year stint on the run for the independent Olympic Ferries Inc. She was replaced with the San Diego which operated summers over the next two years before the company tied up the boat and said they could no longer afford to operated. Washington State Ferries took over the route in June 1974 with the Olympic.
Speaking of the San Diego…
Here she is on the Port Townsend-Keystone run in that final summer of 1973.
The San Diego would go up to Vancouver for conversion into a paddlewheel excursion vessel named Klondike Queen. The conversion never happened, she ended up towed to Antioch, California and converted to a restaurant which operated for a time before a fire shut the venue down.
After spending years moored along the Sacramento River, she was finally scrapped in 2011.
The Tillikum was only 3 years old when this photo was taken…
…during the world’s fair in 1962. You know, sixty-four years ago.
Kennedy was president, cars still had tailfins, and gallon of gas cost .25 cents.
Speaking of 1962…
…here’s the Anacortes ferry dock that same summer, with the Chippewa at the dock, ready to sail to Sidney. Some of the cool cars in line: a 1957 Ford station wagon, a 1957 Chevy, a 1960 Dodge, a late 1950’s Corvette, and another ’57 Ford.
And, lastly…
If you’re of a certain age and a local to the Puget Sound area, you probably still remember the commercials for the Princess Marguerite and the memorable jingle that ended with “Let’s go to Victoria! On the Prin-cess Mar-guer-ite!”
The steamer was approaching her last years of service when this photo was taken of one of her funnels in 1988.
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2 Comments
IDC9 · August 8, 2026 at 6:09 am
It has taken far too long for WSF to begin constructing new boats. I am relieved that work is finally getting underway on the new boats. They can’t come soon enough!
The BC Day long weekend was super busy for BC Ferries with overloaded sailings stretching for eight full days bookending the holiday. I don’t remember ever seeing 7-9 sailing waits for standby traffic between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay before. But that was the story heading into the long weekend on both Thursday and Friday. The BC Ferry Commisioner’s decision in 2025 to reject the fifth boat that BC Ferries wanted to build in order to add a ship to the fleet for the major routes was the wrong decision from the minute it was made, and the long weekend served to reinforce that fact once again.
I am stunned that the Alaska Marine Highway is planning to not serve Cordova for five straight months. The town is going to be facing some very rough times while the ferry isn’t coming. I wish the people who live and work there all the best as they try to cope with this crisis.
Mark Stearns · August 11, 2026 at 6:56 pm
Last week I finally saw the new Mukilteo landing for the first time. With all the years hoopla, that preceded my visit, I was disappointed in many ways.
1. No connecting overhead bridge to the train platform.
2. No walk-on parking except for the monthly permit area.
3. Very sparce interior.
4. They didn’t build the second ferry landing, even though there is a clear place for one.
With regard to the new vessels, yea! They are finally being built! However, only three is too little to make the goal of having 26 on line any time soon. The current vessels are aging out and every year that goes by only makes the problem worse. The next vessels to age out are the Jumbos, (after the Tillicum and the two Supers), The extra capacity these vessels bring to the central Sound will need to be matched, if not exceeded. My hope is that there are discussions and plans being made today to replace our gentle giants.