Elwha out of service – boats shift around to cover sailings

Published 3:34 pm Friday, July 10, 2015

The following is from Brian Churchwell of Washington State Ferries.

After troubleshooting and attempting to fix the drive motor on the Elwha, crews have determined that more extensive repairs are needed. The Elwha will move to WSF’s Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility tonight and will be out of service until further notice.

Summer is WSF’s busiest season and our system is stretched extremely thin. We are moving vessels throughout the system to cover service while the Elwha is out for repairs. Our spare vessel, the 87-car Tillikum, will move from Eagle Harbor to the Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route to replace the 90-car Sealth. The Sealth will shift to the Seattle/Bremerton route, freeing up the 124-car Kitsap to move to the Anacortes/San Juan Islands route to fill in for the Elwha. These vessel moves will occur tonight and tomorrow morning and we expect to be back to nearly full service by midday Saturday.

While we understand that any service adjustments are hard for ferry riders, we have made every effort to use our available resources to cover service while the Elwha is out for repairs. These vessel moves allow us to maintain passenger capacity on the Seattle/Bremerton route, although there will be a reduction in vehicle capacity of 34 vehicles on every other sailing. The Kitsap is slightly smaller than the Elwha, but we are adjusting the San Juan Islands sailing schedule to try to move as many people as possible from Anacortes to the islands.

We have been actively communicating with our customers via email, social media and online and providing information to local and statewide media. Customers are encouraged to sign-up forferry email alerts, check WSF’s website and follow us on Twitter (@wsferries) to receive the latest schedule information and updates.