For the next 10 weeks, people can travel to and from the scenic San Juan Islands for free as the archipelago tests the waters of county-run, passenger-only ferry service. State money is paying for a twice-daily roundtrip between the three most populous islands and Anacortes using a chartered whale watching tour boat.
The boat trial grew out of frustration with unreliable state ferry service in recent years. But even if the county’s walk-on ferry proves popular, it’s unclear how it could be sustained permanently.
“Until people in San Juan County feel that they can count on the [state] ferries like they did 10 years ago,” San Juan County Council Chair Kari McVeigh said, “this is a big deal.”
McVeigh rode along on the inaugural round trip between Friday Harbor and downtown Anacortes. The foot ferry made intermediate stops at Orcas Landing and Lopez Island in each direction. McVeigh noted the boat was very punctual, as hoped for.
Ridership was light during the opening weekend of service due to the short-notice startup and limited pre-launch publicity. Captain Brian Goodremont steered the 55-foot tour boat Sea Lion across sun-splashed seas at about the same speed as the state ferries — 17 knots — on an unusually warm Good Friday to inaugurate the service.
“I think it is mostly going to be islanders that use this service,” said Goodremont, who owns San Juan Safaris, the contracted passenger-only ferry operator. “As we get closer to peak season for visitors — once school is out — I can see visitors using it as an alternative.”
As part of the same state-funded pilot project, San Juan County also contracted with a different local tour company for emergency interisland water taxi service, which will sail only when the state interisland ferry is expected to be out of service for more than four hours. That standby water taxi contract similarly expires on June 30.
In recent weeks, state ferry system leaders have told the public and their overseers in the state Legislature that the car ferries have turned the corner on reliability. Washington State Ferries Chief Steve Nevey and his deputy told a state Senate panel last month that crewing is back to pre-pandemic levels and cancellations significantly reduced.
“We’re clearly going in the right direction,” deputy John Vezina testified. “We’re clearing the maintenance backlog. We are on the path to building new boats. But it’s been tough for our customers and we are aware of that.”
Designed with islanders in mind
The San Juans to Anacortes passenger-only ferry pilot project was designed with the needs of ferry-dependent islanders at the top of mind, but the service should be appealing to visitors from the mainland, too. The foot ferry terminates in downtown Anacortes at the Cap Sante Marina where islanders can walk to a wide variety of businesses, restaurants and medical/dental clinics. Daytrippers headed to the San Juans can park at the marina for free, unlike at the state ferry Anacortes terminal.
The Sea Lion vessel is certified for 49 passengers, but Goodremont said it will be limited to 35 riders for the time being so that everyone has access to the heated, indoor seating if desired.
Orcas Island resident Sooz Stahl was pleased to hear about the new county-run ferry as she waited in the sun for the state ferry to take her to her job running the post office on neighboring Shaw Island.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Stahl said. “They should support ways and plans for people to get here and to visit the islands without a car.”
Stahl said she was unsure whether she would use the walk-on ferry during its 10-week tryout. The county-provided service skips Shaw Island because the isle lacks a public dock suitable for the passenger-only ferry.
A potential drawback of the foot ferry for visitors is that there is no public transit or Uber/Lyft on the islands. Friday Harbor is quite walkable, but Orcas Landing and the Lopez dropoff at Odlin County Park are a good distance from the main attractions of their respective islands.
Traditional taxis are available on San Juan and Orcas islands, though. Bikes can be brought on board the passenger boat with prior reservation.
For travelers going between Friday Harbor and the mainland, the walk-on ferry takes longer than WSF because of the intermediate stops.
In years past, Bellingham was proposed as the mainland terminus for a San Juan Islands passenger-only ferry run. But San Juan County officials considered only Anacortes as the mainland landing this time around because the point of the state funding was to backstop the state ferry service.
The temporary passenger-only ferry is fare-free because the state is footing the bill. Former Gov. Jay Inslee awarded the county $1.5 million in discretionary emergency relief funds last September after hearing a litany of complaints from islanders about missed appointments, stranded schoolchildren and other disruptions caused by cancelled state ferry sailings.
Just recently, the state Department of Commerce denied the county’s request to spend leftover grant funds after the state’s fiscal year ends on June 30 so this walk-on ferry service could be extended into peak tourist season in July.
What could the future bring for San Juan Islands foot ferry service?
Passengers who use the free foot ferry will be surveyed to provide the county with data that it can then use to make the case for a permanent service, if that seems justified.
An ongoing passenger-only run would require a big subsidy if the fares were to be kept reasonable. McVeigh said San Juan County does not currently have the deep pockets to shoulder those operating costs.
San Juan Safaris’ contract to operate the grant-funded temporary foot ferry costs $7,647.50 per day, which adds up quickly to more than half a million dollars for the ten-and-a-half week duration of the pilot project.
Earlier this year at the Legislature, San Juan County council members testified in support of a bill dubbed the Mosquito Fleet Act to launch new, locally operated walk-on ferry routes across Puget Sound. But that proposal was stripped of funding last month and then died in the state Senate at the beginning of April.
Senate Transportation Committee Chair Marko Liias (D-Edmonds) said the state government is not in a position to subsidize new ferry services in the near to medium term.
“The (2025-27) budget is really focused on making sure that our mainstay Washington State Ferries service is healthy, strong and sustainable,” Liias said in late March. “We want to make sure that the service we’re providing is top notch again and we’re investing to get there. Passenger service in the future makes sense, but for now we’re focused on the core of WSF service.”
Absent further state support, another option would be federal grant funding. But McVeigh observed the chances of getting that look grim given the current budget-slashing tenor in the nation’s capital.
A third option would be to turn to local voters for approval to create a county transit district with taxing authority, as Kitsap County did previously. However, McVeigh said it is very premature to go down that path.
“We’re not there yet,” McVeigh said. “This is really just proof-of-concept, this pilot. We want to look at the data. We want to see how our constituents feel about this.”
For now, the council chair from Friday Harbor said people should try out the limited-term passenger service and let the county know what they think. It’s use it or lose it time, to paraphrase her.
“It’s a free ferry ride for now,” McVeigh said. “Come, come, come.”
The Salish Current is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, online local news organization serving Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit counties by reporting local news with independence and strict journalistic integrity, and by providing fact-based information and a forum for civil commentary.
