‘If the ferry breaks down, we’re stuck’: Steilacoom, Anderson Island boat is running again
A ferry is again running between Steilacoom and Anderson Island after a mechanical issue on the vessel, the Steilacoom II, caused service to be suspended this weekend, the county said.
The boat was outfitted with a temporary engine generator midday Sunday, in time for 3:50 p.m. service from Steilacoom, according to alerts posted to the county’s website and on the ferry ticket-purchasing and tracking app, City Experiences.
Low compression was found in a ferry generator on Friday afternoon, causing a series of cancellations before service was entirely suspended. As the county neared securing a passenger-only boat as backup late Saturday, it received Coast Guard approval to use a temporary generator on the Steilacoom II, the county announced early Sunday.
Work will continue this week to repair the broken generator, which the county hopes to complete by Friday without any new service interruptions, according to county spokesperson Erin Babbo.
“This work is complicated,” Babbo said. “We try to plan and mitigate it the best we can for any potential things that can happen.”
The service suspension over the weekend left travelers stranded, including young students, and prompted aid from Anderson Island Fire & Rescue and a private sailor, whose boats ushered people across the water.
The county typically operates a second vessel, the Christine Anderson, but it was out of commission due to a firefighting water supply pump that needs to be replaced — an issue discovered following the vessel’s recent return from dry dock. Babbo said the pump could be installed and certified within the next three weeks.
While the county is obligated to have a passenger-only vessel available within 48 hours of suspended service, at least some travelers questioned whether the county’s contingency plan was sufficient enough in this case with only one vessel in operation.
“When you’re stranded on an island, that’s not OK,” said Trish Radford, a teacher who works at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.
Radford said that the fire department transported students on Friday and made trips for people with medical conditions who couldn’t get home. Others had to get hotel rooms.
Babbo said that the county has a roster of contractors it calls upon to obtain a back-up vessel.
“Unfortunately, you try to make it as quick as possible and have things ready to go, but it’s (a matter of) getting a hold of somebody and bringing the boat down,” Babbo said.
The Steilacoom Terminal was open all night for anyone who needed shelter while service was suspended, and the fire station was made available for people on Anderson Island, according to the county.
The county-operated ferry service runs several times a day between Steilacoom and Anderson Island, just southwest of Tacoma, and also serves passengers in Ketron Island, located between Steilacoom and Anderson Island.
Some whose access to or from the island was cut off hitched a ride with Corey Feldon, owner of South Sound Sailing Tours. Feldon said he had just dropped off his daughter at Browns Point in north Tacoma when he saw the alert Friday that the ferry wasn’t running.
Feldon immediately began to put a plan to help into motion.
He said he phoned a friend on the island, who’s not a sailor, and walked him through how to bring Feldon’s boat to the mainland. From there, Feldon began to take people and their pets across the water. Word began to spread about Feldon’s ferry when he posted his efforts to island Facebook groups.
Over the next three days, Feldon said his boat traveled 136 nautical miles, enough to take him to north Vancouver Island had he gone straight, and carried 514 passengers, 63 dogs and four guinea pigs.
“I don’t feel trapped because I have a boat,” he said. “But a lot of these people out here feel, ‘if the ferry breaks down, we’re stuck.’”
