Ferry Tales 74: Gremlins

"I'm not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose... it'll be much harder to detect." - George Carlin

Frustration ran rampant on Guemes Island this past week. 

There was not a puff of a breeze or a cloud in the sky and power went out at dinner time island wide on Monday. People were scrambling to put together a dinner that didn’t need cooking. This is hardly a hiccup for Guemes Islanders. The two prior island-wide power outages were attributed to creatures crawlng into the substation*. Perhaps this is routine now.

The 5 pm ferry was off schedule due to the power outage. They needed to connect to boat power to raise and lower the ramp. Power was restored before dark and all was well.

Early Tuesday afternoon the #2 ferry engine had significant problems and went out of service. By the time the passenger-only vessel Straight Arrow arrived it was after 3:30 pm.  There were so many people waiting by that time, the Straight Arrow maxed out on its first run. There simply were not enough life jackets.

By Thursday there were high wind warnings and small craft advisories. The schedule was at the mercy of the wind. People were advised to stay home by Rachel Rowe, the ferry manager.

Islanders looked expectantly at Dakota Creek, willing our ferry to start its engine and return to us and it’s home dock. Wasn’t it April 2012 and September 2013 that the #2 engine was replaced?

Lots of questions remain unanswered. 

What went wrong with the engine? Why wasn't our spare rebuilt in five months? Is heavy truck traffic the issue?  Is heavy ballast the issue? Is it a budget manipulation?  Is it poor management? Why did it take five months to receive and open bids to rebuild the engine replaced last September? If a car gets a flat tire and a spare tire is put on, how long do you drive on that spare without getting the flat fixed? A day, a week? Shouldn’t the same logic apply to the Guemes Ferry? Is a reliable  spare engine a luxury? Is money really being saved by not rebuilding in a timely fashion?

Perhaps its "creatures" again, crawling into the engine room.

This Sunday morning, the Strait Arrow broke down (was it the #2 engine?) after the 8:30 run and limped away on one engine. Fortunately, they had a spare - the Brave Arrow - and service resumed at 10.

The San Juan Enterprise made several trips over this week, sometimes twice a day, getting people to doctor’s appointments,  grandparents to new grandbabies, workers to their jobs, even wedding attendants to their wedding. Dan Crookes has always been good to Guemes Islanders. He runs a good  business, answers all phones messages. He does his mother proud. 

We will be happy to have the Guemes Ferry back in service.  I wonder if any of our many, many questions will be answered. Wanna Bet?

- Commentary by MJ Andrak

 

*December 2013, Anacortes American:  A rogue seagull collided with equipment on a Puget Sound Energy substation this morning at West Third Street in Anacortes causing thousands to lose power. PSE Spokeswoman Mandy Davis said the outage occurred at about 8:45 a.m., leaving roughly 4,000 customers - roughly two-thirds of the city - without power. Crews worked throughout the day to minimize those numbers. By 2:45 p.m. only 470 customers were still without power. Davis said PSE expected all power to be restored by 5 p.m.

Tags: Ferry Frustration