Smaller ferries in Admiralty Inlet would be dangerous
A former NOAA officer, otherwise anonymous, has filed an interesting report about weather conditions in Admiralty Inlet, where the Port Townsend-Whidbey Island ferry route runs (when it does). His verdict: the state's plans to replace the current ferry with a smaller boat would risk lives, due to the mighty winds and waves prevalent in the area.
The blogger describes, with detailed records, how the wind comes around the Olympics and creates intense pressure and high waves. That calls for boats that are "large, powerful, and sturdy," he writes. Here's his scary weather report:
When Southwest storm winds off the Pacific are forced to divide around the Olympic Mts., the eastern branch of these winds blows up Hood Canal. Because the mountains have forced the moving air aside, it is compressed, and by a well-known principle of fluid dynamics called the Bernoulli Principle, a flowing fluid (in this case air) that is compressed and subjected to higher pressure by dividing around an object speeds up in the immediate vicinity of the object. This is why Hood Canal experienced 100 mph winds in 1979, winds which broke apart and sank the original bridge. When this eastern branch of the "fluid" reaches the northern end of Hood Canal at the NE corner of the Olympic Peninsula and north end of the Kitsap Peninsula, it spews forth into Admiralty Inlet like water out of a fire hose and slams into the southwest side of Whidbey Island.
In calling for bigger boats to replace the scrapped small Port Townsend ferry, the writer also says there will need to be an expanded terminal at Port Townsend and a new terminal outside the tiny Keystone Harbor on Whidbey. He stresses that the Inlet is "a wild and dangerous place," as some recent episodes demonstrate:
The experience of the Keystone-Port Townsend passenger-only ferry the other day is a case in point, with the entire bow going under dark green water for what seemed like an eternity, flooding water into the passenger cabin and striking terror among the passengers. They literally thought they were about to die, screaming and helplessly running "up hill" toward the back of the boat. Another case in point is the recent event that damaged cars on a much larger San Juan Islands ferry.
The comments appear on a blog called Bitter End, run by a rescue tug captain, Richard J. Rodriguez. It's an interesting source of detailed information about our ferries, from the helm, as it were.
Comments:
Posted Thu, Feb 14, 10:36 a.m. inappropriate
Serial Ineptitude: Once again, it seems, the Governor is implementing a feel-good plan that says "Look, we're doing something!" rather than finding a real solution to a problem. How many millions will be wasted on ferries that will soon be proven too small? Then the whole process will start over again. The state is in the hands of incompetents who equate spending lots of money with solving problems. As Sir Joshua Reynolds said (and Thomas Edison was fond of quoting), "There is no expedient to which a man [or woman] will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."
Posted Thu, Feb 14, 12:13 p.m. inappropriate
Norma Smith electioneering: The anonymous poster on the linked blog would have more credibility if they identified themselves and (maybe more importantly) didn't try to tie the claimed safety issue with 1) advocacy of bigger ferries and all that entails; and 2) electioneering for newly appointed representative Norma Smith. I won't say any more about my #2, other than that every politician is currently trying to capitalize on this hot issue and as a newly appointed (non-elected) Rep, Smith has a lot of work to do positioning herself before her next November. Remember, she's never actually been elected before.
As to my #1, bigger ferries means severe impacts to Whidbey, including literally building an entirely new harbor. All options are unpalatable if the environment is valued at least as highly as endless so-called "growth" and development. The existing harbor would have to be drastically expanded, trashing the extremely biologically rich dive park. Or an entirely new harbor would need to be constructed south on Keystone Spit, trashing the state park and suffering from the same problems with siltation from the heavy littoral drift along that section of the coast. Or a large area several miles south would need to be purchased and an entirely new harbor constructed. All of these options are frightfully expensive.
In discussions about the ferries, we need to keep in mind that we can't build our way out of the long tourist season lines anymore than LA can build itself out of freeway congestion. We also need to realize that those pleasant summertime driving jaunts between Whidbey and PT are going to be a lot rarer when gas is $6+ per gallon. And by the time any of the "bigger better builder boomer" options could be carried out, gas will be in that range.
Finally, as a practical matter and as the community on Whidbey successfully argued, its dumb to try to set up the ferry system for one-size-fits-all boats. Smaller runs in the San Juans don't need giant boats. Keystone Harbor can barely accommodate the existing ferries, let alone larger boats. And the communities that have to bear the on-the-ground costs of the ferry system don't want these additional inducements to development. Unfortunately, the Ferry system, in its infinite wisdom, continued to push "one-size-fits-all" ferries long past when it became obvious that it wouldn't fly politically or economically, let alone environmentally.
Of course, none of this actually has anything to do with the incompetence involved in not properly inspecting the hulls, a problem not limited to the steel electrics.
Posted Fri, Feb 15, 5:22 p.m. inappropriate
What Does the Coast Guard Think?: If the Coast Guard says the ferries are safe, I'll take that over the musings of a blogger "at the helm" and the spinning of the state GOP, which is trying to make ferries a partisan issue for all too obvious electioneering purposes.
Look, ferries serve a relatively small number of the state's citizens directly. Most of the rest of the state enjoys the ferries, but don't relate them to day-to-day doings. So what's important for ferry communities is to unite and grow a coalition, as opposed to breaking into partisan or turf (route) centric camps that allow the entire system to become victim to a divide and conquer mentality by the people in the legislature who so far won't face the music.
People who depend on ferries need to shout down to obvious partisan stuntsmanship that is the most persistent theme in Island communication these days.
Someone needs to look at the facts: the ferry system needs a more reliable stream of state funding and credible leadership focused on solutions. Recent leadership changes are hopeful. Getting a steady stream of new state funding to keep things safely afloat is a bigger challenge: the GOP has been opposing any new revenue and the Democrats just keep saying "there's no more money."
The state needs to find more money and develop the backbone to secure it. Ferry communities need to unite to provide that backbone. All other alternatives are grim.