PORT TOWNSEND – Even shopkeepers who were busy on the weekend after Thanksgiving – traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year – missed the visitors from the ferry.
“I think we’re going to have a good day today,” Joe Jordan, manager of Swain’s Outdoor, 1121 Water St., said on Friday.
“It’s just not going to be as good as it could be.”
No ferry has run between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island since Tuesday afternoon, when Washington State Ferries pulled all four Steel Electric vehicular ferries from service.
Passenger ferry service was initially expected on Friday, but on Thursday the state moved the date to Monday and on Saturday, officials said the first departure of a ferry from Port Townsend could be either Sunday or Monday.
State ferries system officials said they have no figures on the numbers of people transported on the ferry last year during the post-Thanksgiving weekend.
But The Seattle Times reported that 300 foot passengers and 1,000 car per day were carried on the Port Townsend-Keystone route during that time.
“I think the economic blow to Port Townsend is a disaster, absolutely a disaster,” Port Townsend City Councilwoman Laurie Medlicott said on Saturday.
“It is going to be devastating to our restaurants and merchants for the loss of revenue.
“I don’t know how we can possibly recover from this.”
At least one Port Townsend business plans layoffs in anticipation of a lack of vehicle ferry traffic until next year.
“We’re definitely going to be cutting back hours,” said Mickey Davis, owner of Subway, 1300 Water St., located across the street from the Port Townsend ferry terminal.
“We expected to be busy Wednesday, Thursday and over the weekend, but we were totally dead.
“Our business very much is dictated by the long ferry wait on this side,” Davis said.
When the ferries stopped running Wednesday, “It was like the faucet was turned off,” he said.
He said he’s told two part-time high school employees that he would not be able to give them any hours until the vehicle ferries are back.
