The failure of an outdrive bracket and tangential damage to an engine mount took the ferry Guemes out of service by the 3:45 pm run on Saturday, January 30, 2023 of the New Years weekend. This failure left islanders and visitors scrambling to get vehicles off the island. On Sunday, January 30, the San Juan Enterprise made multiple runs hauling vehicles off the island. Sunday also saw the Straight Arrow, with a maximum 45 passenger capacity, transporting family and guests with armloads of kids, party goods and coolers off the island. Often passengers had to wait for the next run as the Straight Arrow reached its passenger limit. The Guemes is still out of service with a possible return date of January 9, 2024, weather dependent.

During planned outages, Skagit Transit (SKAT) provides bus service on Guemes to accommodate the foot passenger only needs of islanders and visitors without a vehicle on the island. As this current outage was unplanned, no bus could be staged on the island side. If the island had full time bus service, these unplanned outages could be much less disruptive especially as the stated long-term back-up for ferry outages is a foot passenger only vessel.

A new “all electric” 28 car ferry is currently under bid with a delivery date in 2026. Experience with any new vessel, much less one with leading edge drive technology, is that none run perfectly at first. This is the case with conventionally driven vessels with reliable diesel engines, drive units, and proven controls. The new Guemes will have a cutting edge, complex drive system combining batteries, an on-board diesel engine, and controls- all computer integrated. In a discussion with Mike Nelson of Dakota Creek Shipyard in Anacortes, who decided not to bid the new electric Guemes ferry, one of his prime concerns was the company selected for the critical task of integrating the electrical system for the new ferry. Dakota Creek has installed complex electrical drive systems on ships built for NOAA and currently will build an all-electric tug, but they are only comfortable working with companies like Siemens or ABB to take the role of electrical integration. They had not heard of the company, Canal Marine, out of Vancouver, BC, selected for the integration role.

The Gees Bend ferry in Alabama is the first car ferry in the US to have an all-electric drive system retrofitted into its existing hull and designed by Glosten. The ferry is not essential in that there are other routes to cross the river. The conversion was done in 2018 and since then the vessel has experienced multiple outages, averaging 77 days per year (including scheduled and unscheduled maintenance) with the primary problem being the integration of the batteries, controls, and electric motors. Their ferry manager commented that it has been excellent to work with Glosten but they have a poor record of getting help from the system integrator where the majority of problems occur. The bottom line for Guemes Island is expect unplanned outages with any new vessel but a likelihood of more outages with one with cutting edge electric drive technology.   

The need for continuous bus service on Guemes is not new. The current Skagit County Comprehensive Plan 2016-2036 states on page 475:

If a public transit service could be established on Guemes Island and synchronized with the ferry schedule, it would provide a viable alternative to the private automobile on Guemes Island, reduce vehicle demand on the M/V Guemes, and reduce vehicle traffic on Guemes Island roads.”  . . . This would benefit Guemes Island residents and non-residents alike.”

As a matter of record, SKAT and the Guemes Island Ferry Committee began the process of providing bus service to Guemes years ago. What was achieved was the turn-around No Parking area on the Anacortes side to allow a bus to turn around at dock level ensuring ADA access and ease of use. This process stalled for a number of reasons not least of which was the inability of an Anacortes side bus to alter its schedule to meet the ferry and no permanent provision of bus service on Guemes. A committee of two was formed, Captain Rachel Rowe and Dale O’Brien, then director of SKAT, to continue to work the issue while the Ferry Committee was removed from the discussions. No further progress was made on the bus service. Moving cars remains a Public Works priority for the Guemes Ferry. The No Parking/ turn area still exists on the Anacortes side and is used regularly by the school bus plus is available for aid vehicles responding to island emergencies.  

The demand for a continuous bus service on Guemes coordinated with meeting scheduled buses on the Anacortes dock, not up the hill on 6th Street, has increased since 2016. The difficulties of this current, unplanned outage of the Guemes emphasizes the need for an island based full-time bus service and highlights the necessity of nearby access to the Anacortes side ferry terminal for moving passengers and supplies. This proximate access is critical for emergency vehicles. The current design for the Anacortes dock revisions places a toll booth in the No Parking turn-around area.  Existing short-term parking slots will be lost to the placement of the large electrical cubicles necessary for recharging the new ferry. While the placement of the cubicles may be an unavoidable necessity, the plan for a toll booth appears less so.

With the County investing in an electronic ticketing system, the rational for a toll booth is minimized. The problem with toll booths, as ferries move to bigger vessels, was detailed in the report done on the Fauntleroy ferries in 2018 which can be found here. The proposed placement of the new toll booth eliminates the bus turn around area currently used by the school bus and available for emergency vehicles. It will remove the ability for a dock level ADA accessible SKAT bus to pick up and drop off passengers for the needed bus service on Guemes.  

The Guemes Island Planning Advisory Committee (GIPAC) will host a meeting in February on Guemes with representatives from SKAT who will be kicking off a County-wide transit study to review their current and future services. Guemes Island falls within the SKAT Transit service area and has paid the tax for SKAT services for years.

- Steve Orsini