Well, what happened?

Short answer, I had to change providers for the website, which necessitated tearing the entire thing down and starting all over.

And here we are.

Everything but the B.C. Ferries pages are back up. Due to the sheer size and admitted limited interest in updating the B.C. ferry pages on my part, and the fact that all the boats I was fond of have been or are about to be retired, I’m leaving the work on B.C. ferries to others. I will probably put up a page on some of my favorite retirees at some point, but I’m not sure when.

Which reminds me, if I’ve missed a boat on here you’d like to have covered, send me an email. Some vessels with same names are on the same page–i.e. the Issaquah which has a mention of her predecessor at the bottom of that page now.

Meanwhile, The Blog will be taking the place of the Day Room, mainly because of the format of the new site being markedly different than the old one. On the negative side, a few of the “features” of the the Day Room are being retired. On the plus side, this informal layout allows me to address things and update a little more often.

We’ve all seen the photo of the engine room fire on the Wenatchee. We’re now beginning to feel the fallout of having one of the three largest boats of the system out for what is probably going to be all summer. Keystone is delaying the second boat (again) Bremerton is going to be downsized to the Salish, and rotating smaller boats will be in and out on the Bainbridge run.

The question is, at this point to they just push ahead with the hybrid conversion on the Wenatchee, or fix it because we’re so short of vessels?

Meanwhile in Alaska, now that they’ve got a bunch of federal funds to pour into the system, the governor is suddenly interested in adding crew’s quarters to the new boats to make them something other than day use only. Imagine that.

Our neighbors in the north had some heartburn with a trial system for route 3–so much so, they canceled the whole idea. It seems the idea was proving to be “divisive.”

Even with the shortage of boats, I don’t think that retiring the Elwha was anything but practical. Last report was that at least $28 million in new steel was needed, something that wasn’t going to extend her life a whole lot and certainly wasn’t going to do a thing to the precarious mechanical situation she (and the remaining Supers) are in; they’re not unsafe mechanically, mind you, they’re just old. They’re unable to run at full speed and the drive motors have to be babied to prevent a major failure. The State needs to get building and fast, because it’s only a matter of time before out two remaining Supers conk out–and possibly for good, even with the parts cannibalized from the Hyak and Elwha.

Matson has decided to not store the Maunalei at the Port of Olympia, which means that the former first ferry for WSF, the Evergreen State doesn’t have to move. While her current owner expressed some “excitement” at the prospect of the state utilizing the Evergreen State again after his conversion plans, one could probably safely say “no backsies” on the part of the state, which in the past has had the opportunity to repurchase or lease their former vessels and had said “no” every single time. Even in the most desperate times for ferries, like back in the mid-70’s, when the state seriously looked into reactivating/repurchasing the Enetai, Willapa, San Mateo, San Diego, and even the Sunshine Coast Queen, they opted to build and wait for the new rather than invest in the old.

Matson, for the record, built some of my favorite ships back in the 1930’s–Malolo, Mariposa, Monterey and Lurline.