PORT TOWNSEND — Car ferry service returns to the Port Townsend-Keystone route early Thursday morning after five weeks of maintenance and repairs on the 50-car Steilacoom II.
Laura Johnson, Washington State Ferries spokeswoman, said that the Pierce County-owned ferry leased by the state Department of Transportation would return to the Port Townsend ferry terminal tonight and relaunch at 6:30 a.m. Thursday with the first run out of Port Townsend.
“As long as the weather holds,” Johnson added Tuesday.
The weather is key to the light-weight Steilacoom II’s ability to cross Admiralty Inlet, which is often plagued with heavy winds and high seas during winter.
When the seas are too heavy, service is canceled.
The schedule can be found at www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries.
Reservations are now available for vehicle travel.
They can be made online or by phoning 888-808-7977.
The Steilacoom II ferry was expected to be out of service until Sunday, but Todd Pacific Shipyards of Seattle finished work early, the state ferries system said.
When it went into dry dock at Todd Pacific’s Harbor Island yard in Seattle, maintenance was expected to take only about month, with the boat back on the route by the beginning of February.
Instead, repair crews discovered that the Steilacoom II needed a keel cooler replaced as well as work on the propeller shafts and gear box.
While the car ferry was in dry dock, the state hired a temporary passenger-only ferry.
The 100-foot, 77-passenger Mystic Sea, an Anacortes-based whale-watching charter operator, served the route on a similar schedule as the Steilacoom II, which was timed to meet Jefferson and Island transit buses on both sides of the run.
The Mystic Sea has been operating between Port Townsend and Keystone Harbor since Jan. 5.
The state leased the Steilacoom II in January 2008 to compensate for the loss of two 54-car Steel Electric ferries, which at more than 80 years old were deemed unsafe and pulled from service Nov. 20, 2007.
The Snohomish passenger ferry, state-owned before it was sold to a San Francisco Bay operator, ran between Port Townsend and Seattle to temporarily compensate for the loss of the Steel Electric ferries.
Todd Shipyards is also in the process of building a 64-car ferry, loosely designed after the Massachusetts Island Home ferry, construction of which is expected to begin in June for delivery to the state for the Port Townsend-Keystone route in May 2010. The ferry is now in the design phase.
The Steilacoom II is the only vehicle ferry that will work for Keystone Harbor’s challenging navigation conditions. State ferries officials have said they cannot find a replacement boat anywhere in the world that qualifies for the run across Admiralty Inlet.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
