SHINE — Navy Petty Officer Seth Atsma was waiting at a Silverdale bus stop Tuesday to go to work at Naval Magazine Indian Island when he heard the news — the Lofall ferry scheduled to cross Hood Canal to the South Point ferry dock in Jefferson County was canceled by 20-plus mph winds and 4-foot seas.
“I was going to take the ferry across at 5 a.m.,” Atsma recalled.
Because of strong wind, service was halted on the Lofall-South Point water shuttle route across Hood Canal beginning at 11 p.m. Monday and continuing until Tuesday night.
Water shuttle service resumed with a 9:15 p.m. sailing out of Lofall and a 9:40 p.m. sailing out of South Point, State Ferries officials said Tuesday night.
Adventures in transit
Learning that the delays could continue on Tuesday morning, Atsma hopped in his car and drove state Highway 3 to U.S. Highway 101 north to the Shine Pit Park and Ride off state Highway 104, arriving at about 8:30 a.m.
There, after a two-hour drive, he warmed up inside an idled Jefferson Transit Shine shuttle bus, waiting for a Navy van to pick him up.
“This is my first time going across, and there’s a lot of adventure going on today,” he said with a smile.
DOT provides the passenger-only water shuttle service, operated by Port Angeles-based Victoria Express, to ferry passengers across the Hood Canal while the eastern half of the bridge is replaced.
The bridge closed Friday, and water shuttle sailing had been smooth until Monday night, when a storm blew in.
On Tuesday night, Starline Transportation buses were provided at 8:30 p.m. at the Kingston and Bainbridge terminals to shuttle people to the Port Gamble Park and Ride, said Becky Hixson, Hood Canal project spokeswoman, in a statement Tuesday.
“Between 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., eastbound travelers can meet a bus at Shine Pit Park and Ride to take a road trip around Hood Canal or be taken to Southpoint to catch a water shuttle.”
Transit buses also were halted on Tuesday. Jefferson Transit officials at Fred Hill Materials Shine Pit Park and Ride got the word at 3 a.m. Tuesday that at least the early run would be canceled by high winds and heavy seas.
Hixson said it is not that the Victoria Express boats can’t ply high winds and heavy seas.
Dock is the problem
The landing at the South Point dock is the problem.
The dock runs parallel to the shore, which exposes it to wind and waves.
The Lofall dock is perpendicular to the shoreline on the Kitsap County side of the run and is more sheltered, she said.
“The vessel is having trouble landing there,” Hixson said. “High waves don’t make for a safe landing there.”
Cross-canal commuters can find ongoing weather warnings that could cancel Jefferson Transit bus and water shuttle service at www.hoodcanalbridge.com or by phoning 5-1-1 or 877-595-4222.
Heading for Harborview
On Tuesday, Sequim resident Shonda Sierra was driving on Highway 101 after 8 a.m. to visit her husband at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle when she saw the electronic sign informing her that ferry service was temporarily shut down.
“I actually just waited in my car,” she said as she pulled her luggage to her car in the Shine Pit parking lot after a Transit information worker informed her about the delay.
Chris Klack, of Port Townsend, rode his bicycle to Port Townsend’s Haines Place Park and Ride, where he caught the No. 7 bus to the Olympic Gateway Visitor Center. He planned a trip to Seattle to visit a friend.
Not knowing he was supposed to take the shuttle on to Shine Pit Park and Ride, he rode his bicycle down 104 to the Shine Pit.
“I did learn you’re not supposed to bike here,” said the cargo vessel worker on leave.
“I’m a stray, but I knew the boat was closed from the Web site when I left at 8 a.m.”
He took the Mukilteo-Clinton ferry and the Keystone-Port Townsend run home Friday after staying in Seattle last week.
“It’s been a little adventure,” he said. “I’ve lived here a long time and haven’t been to the Shine Pit.”
Home from work
Paula Hendrickson from Kingston was trying Tuesday to get home from her graveyard shift at Kah Tai Care Center in Port Townsend.
The care center loaned Hendrickson the vehicle to get her to and from work to the Shine lot.
“It took me three hours from home to work,” she said of her previous trip to Port Townsend from the Port Gamble Park and Ride,
She was glad to have access to the company car, which is left at Shine Part parking lot.
A Starline Transportation luxury coach twice took a limited number of passengers in need of returning home or to work from Port Gamble Park and Ride to Fred Hill Park and Ride and back, a service provided by DOT.
“We’re not making that the new service each day,” Hixson said. “But we just felt the need to make sure that people who needed to get home are home and not just stranded there.
“They were people who had kids and pets and other stuff to come home to.”
Starline driver John Alcorn said at the Shine Pit that the trip was 136 miles and took three hours from Port Gamble to Shine Pit.
Jefferson Transit Manager Dave Turissini and bridge project transportation worker Mike Pollack shrugged off the transit stoppage early Tuesday morning.
“What are you going to do?” Turissini asked after visiting the Shine Pit Park and Ride and South Point ferry dock.
Bridge work
Hixson said extra tugs were brought in Monday night to secure the bridge work in progress, and construction equipment was pulled off the Hood Canal Bridge’s east half to spare it from falling off the bridge in heavy seas.
Workers spent Tuesday getting equipment back in place.
The bridge’s east truss was lifted and towed out Monday, and workers were staging Tuesday for removal of the west truss later this week.
Today, workers are expected to prepare to detach and tow away the bridge’s old draw span, known as “the bulge.”
The joints to the bulge have been cut away, Hixson said.
The bridge’s floating draw span that connected to the bulge was removed last Friday and floated north to Canada, where a Victoria developer is refurbishing it for future marine uses.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
