The long way home

Published 8:30 pm Friday, March 18, 2011

Most ferry riders seemed to adjust well to the closure of the Mukilteo ferry dock on Friday, though a few did experience problems.

The dock was closed for maintenance and will continue to be shut down through Sunday. It will also be closed the next two weekends, March 25-27 and April 1-3.

For ferry riders heading between the mainland and Whidbey Island, a special run was set up to carry them between Edmonds and Clinton.

“That’s life,” said Kathy Levesque of Greenbank, who was riding the 11:30 a.m. boat to Whidbey. She was aware of the change and planned ahead for her morning class in Lynnwood.

Most commuters heading to the mainland from Clinton in the morning were ready for the change, said Marta Coursey, spokeswoman for the Washington State Ferry System, who rode some of the boats.

“They were very, very aware,” she said.

The 5:35 a.m. boat from Clinton to Edmonds was full, but others were carrying fewer cars than usual, Coursey said.

Early in the day, the schedule ran smoothly at the Edmonds dock as boats from Clinton were slipped in and out between those coming from Kingston.

“We drove right on” in Edmonds, said Al Odmark of Seattle. He and a friend were headed to his vacation house on Whidbey. “I certainly would hate to try it tonight,” he said.

Later in the day, ferries began to run a little behind as the boat-juggling started to have a ripple effect on the schedule, Coursey said.

The trip from Edmonds to Clinton took 50 minutes, but some trips in the other direction took more than an hour as captains had to slow down and wait offshore for ferries from Kingston to move in and out of the dock. This was built into the schedule to some degree.

Some riders weren’t aware of the change and it cost them some time. Keith Leany of Poulsbo and his son, Sam, 3, walked on from Kingston to meet someone in Edmonds. On the return trip, Leany bought a ticket for Kingston but got on the Clinton boat by mistake, walking right past a bright orange sign with black letters that read, “Now loading for Clinton.”

“It was my bad,” he said after figuring out what had happened.

He had to ride back from Clinton to Edmonds, then buy another ticket to return to Kingston.

“It’s a wasted day off,” he said, but was glad to spend time with his son. “It’s all good.”

Katey Bean, a landscape architect for the state Department of Transportation, drove most of the way to the Mukilteo dock on her way to a job on Whidbey Island. Then she saw a sign on the Mukilteo Speedway that said the dock was closed and traffic was detoured to Edmonds.

“It was a surprise,” she said.

The notice was posted on readerboards on I-5, Highway 526, the Mukilteo Speedway and Highway 104 leading into Edmonds, Coursey said.

Kathy Baxter, of Freeland, who normally takes the Mukilteo ferry two or three times a week back and forth to the mainland, rode a boat from Edmonds to Clinton on Friday.

She said she didn’t have any problems but believed others might — “the aunt and the niece who are coming from Coeur d’Alene (Idaho),” she said, posing a hypothetical situation.

“They’re cutting in line and they’ve got three people yelling at them and four people pounding on their window.”

Placards were distributed to drivers at the Edmonds toll booths to keep Clinton traffic separate from those headed to Kingston, Coursey said.

Some riders enjoyed the novelty of the unusual trip between Clinton and Edmonds.

“It’s kind of nice to take a different route,” said Allma Plakos of Freeland, on board the boat from Clinton to Edmonds.

A group of women from Clinton who regularly have lunch together decided to ride the boat to Edmonds for fun.

“We’re just going to go have a meal,” said Jackie Lechelt as the group walked off the Clinton ferry in Edmonds on Friday morning.

“And enjoy each other’s company,” said Dorothy Howell-Jones, completing Lechelt’s sentence.

In Mukilteo, work proceeded on the dock. The repairs involve replacing the mechanical and electrical systems that operate the transfer span and its apron — the platform that bridges the dock and the boats.

Crews also worked to replace a section of asphalt at the toll booths leading to the Mukilteo holding lanes, where there have been sinkholes, Coursey said.

Mukilteo-Clinton is the third-most heavily traveled route in the system, after Seattle-Bainbridge and Edmonds-Kingston.

Ferries carried nearly 3.9 million passengers between Mukilteo and Clinton in 2010.

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.