Summer’s winding down…

“The phrase ‘may you live in interesting times’ is the lowest in a trilogy of Chinese curses that continue ‘may you come to the attention of those in authority’ and finish with ‘may the gods give you everything you ask for.’ I have no idea about its authenticity.”–Terry Pratchett.

I’m with the late Sir Terry on the authenticity of said curses, but given the past few years, there is a certain ringing veracity to each and every one of them. I never thought I’d reach a point in my life where I’d be reveling in all things being mundane and uneventful, but yowsa…here we are.

Surprising exactly no one…
Washington State Ferries has announced that the Cathlamet will be out for the remainder of the year. As Marge Simpson once said, “Well duh.” That’s not to disparage WSF for stating the obvious; they’re obligated to keep the public informed about what’s going on with the fleet, and particularly the poor Cathlamet after its accident back in July. I think we all knew that after seeing that horrifying crumpled pickle fork it wasn’t going to be a simple knock with a hammer and a can of boat polish to get her back into the fleet.
Don’t hold your breath on finding out the cause. These type of investigations are excruciatingly thorough and take months. If anything comes out about it before the end of the year, I’ll be very surprised.
Meanwhile, the Cathlamet has repairs getting underway in Everett, where, if you follow the link to the Times story, it appears she’s parked next to former fleetmate, the Evergreen State.

Meanwhile, WSF is having its worst on-time performance, ever. The articles are citing the crew shortages which to be sure are a big part of it, but missing from the equation are that many schedules that were written for smaller and or faster boats that no longer serve the routes (as in the San Juans) or can’t go that fast anymore (looking at you, remaining Super Class) and the fact that the system is under a mandate to slow down in order to conserve fuel–something schedules have not been adjusted for. You can’t be on time for say a 17 knot schedule when you’re running the boat at 15 knots to save fuel. Work on the San Juan schedule is underway, at least, where hopefully these variances will be written into the schedule.

Mark the date!
August 29th is the day the bidding closes for building the next five ferries, all of which are to be hybrid electric boats. The process was restarted when Vigor, which, BTW, has owns nearly every major shipyard capable of building vessels of this size in the entire Pacific Northwest, could reach a deal with WSF and hence the contract had to be rebid. If WSF doesn’t get any “reasonable” offers from within the state, the contract can be rebid nationwide. The only yards I know that could still build boats or who have indeed built any ferries in the past couple of decades are National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego and Halter Marine in Alabama.
Looking at NASSCO’s website, it would appear that the last ferries they built were…ahem, the “Hyak Class for Washington State Ferries” fifty-six years ago. Halter has been building ferries for quite awhile, including a few for Martha’s Vineyard.
(See the quote at the top of the page for my feelings on this whole thing.)
Incidentally, the state is now saying that the earliest they expect the first new ferry on the water is 2027.

Flashback Friday (as it is Friday as I write this) to a century ago when the fledgling Anacortes-Sidney ferry route was wrapping up its first ever season on this terrifying little “ferry”, the former kelp harvesting boat Harvester King.
While Haro Strait is usually quite calm in the summer, it can still get quite bumpy and the very idea of crossing it on this thing in anything but flat-calm weather makes my stomach clench at the thought. It’s no surprise that the following year when Black Ball was asked to run the route they replaced the Harvester King with the more suitable City of Angeles, which had originally been built for ocean-going travel at least.
Some other things going on in 1922? (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
January 11 – The first successful insulin treatment of diabetes is made, by Frederick Banting in Toronto.
February 8— President of the United States Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.
March 4 – The silent horror film Nosferatu is premièred at the Berlin Zoological Garden in Germany.
April 7 – Teapot Dome scandal: The United States Secretary of the Interior leases Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming. (Downton Abbey made use of it as a plot point involving Cora’s brother.)
October 18 – The British Broadcasting Company is formed.
November 4 – In Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter and his men discover the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
November 21 – Rebecca Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, formally becoming the first woman United States Senator.
December 20 – Antigone by Jean Cocteau appears on stage in Paris, with settings by Pablo Picasso, music by Arthur Honegger and costumes by Coco Chanel.
And, date unknown: Vegemite is invented by Australian entrepreneur Fred Walker.

These crew shortages are not just happening at Washington State Ferries, whatever political pundits might be saying. A quick Google news search on “B.C. Ferries” will highlight the dozens of cancellations due to lack of crew happening to our neighbors to the north.
While COVID was and continues to be a factor, this is part of the “Gray Wave” that experts were warning about a decade ago. COVID just made it a “gray tsunami” instead. And don’t look for it to end any time soon.
B.C. Ferries is up on WSF when it comes to vessel replacement, but it should be pointed out all their recent vessels have been built overseas, an option that is not available to WSF–or any other US based operation for that matter. (Not saying if that’s right or wrong, it’s just how it is.)

Et tu, Alaska?
See, I keep telling you this is not a problem unique to Washington State Ferries. Only in Alaska, it doesn’t mean a missed sailing for an evening–it means tying up the boat for an entire week.
The Alaska Marine Highway System, like other maritime agencies, has been finding it difficult to hire new staff this year. That’s even after offering $5,000 hiring bonuses. Kodiak Republican House Speaker Louise Stutes says that “irregular service makes it harder to attract candidates.”
One thing Washington State Ferries definitely has over Alaska–that ability to go home after your shift.

Name that ferry!
Sorry, Vineyard folk, Wishkah is taken! (I need an eye roll emoji.) Who knows, perhaps they don’t want to name their vessel something that means “Stinking Waters” anyway.
The Steamship Authority has launched a contest to name the two vessels, that will be converted from the Shooting Star and Lode Star to be the new freight ferries replacing the Gay Head and Katama.
The contest prize is a $250 gift card valid for travel or parking to any port served by the SSA.
Hurry up, though, those entries have to be in by September 5th.

Sad News.
I was very disappointed and saddened to learn that the Tourist No. 2 sank at her mooring in Astoria on 28 July 2022. I had hoped that the vessel would enjoy a full restoration having been returned to her home waters, but it seems the project encountered one problem after another.
As of August 10th, the state planned to seize the ferry in order to take control of it and remove it. Estimated costs for the removal are over a million dollars. Global Diving & Salvage, who have been hired for the clean up, expects to have break up the ferry on site and load the pieces from the water onto a barge. Photos posted to the Daily Astorian on the 25th show that process is now underway.
A very sad loss of another historic vessel.

And that’s the update for now. Leaving on a slightly more positive note, we have the mighty Kaleetan, looking still fairly fresh back in August of 1977 in the San Juan Islands. At the time, the system as short on vessels (hmm….) and was looking into all sorts of options to get ferries on the water ASAP–including reactivating and rebuilding the San Mateo and repurchasing the Enetai and Willapa from their owners in California. For the Sidney run (which the Kaleetan served) they were looking into the purchasing the recently retired Sunshine Coast Queen from B.C. ferries as it had been a former Michigan ferry built in the US and able to make multiple stops in the islands. Ultimately, the state passed, as the Sunshine Coast Queen’s ice-breaker hull made her fuel-thirsty, at a time when fuel prices were sky-high. (Again..hmmm…)
It took three years to get the first new ferry on the water–the Issaquah. We’re going to have to wait five this time around.

I always liked the Super Class with the larger green stripe on the funnels. It just seems a little more balanced.
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