01/05/2007: "Winter Ferry Sailing Schedule Starts Sunday"

There are some changes in the schedule starting Sunday (Jan 7) when the Washington State Ferries begin the Winter Schedule that will run through March 31, 2007. There will be a weekday and a weekend schedule; and a major change in the good old "red-eye" trip that is sure be a lot of fun.

The ferry system wants to remind us that their winter season is also a slow season for the ferry system, so changes in service are made to save money. This is the fourth year in a row for these seasonal cuts, which saves the system approximately $500,000 each winter season.

The Anacortes/San Juan Island routes experience the most change during the winter schedule. During the winter, service between Anacortes and Sidney, B.C. is canceled, while the normal four boats will run in the San Juan Islands Monday through Friday and three boats on weekends during the winter schedule. This results in their being two schedules, a weekday and a weekend schedule.

The biggest change in the schedule is the following:

The 5:15 p.m. inter-island sailing from Friday Harbor will move to 5:25 p.m. and will not sail to Anacortes as it did in the Winter 2006 schedule. Friday Harbor, Orcas, Shaw and Lopez customers who used this boat to go to Anacortes in the past will now catch the inter-island boat at 5:25 p.m. at Friday Harbor, or 6:10 p.m. at Orcas, or 6:25 p.m. at Shaw and sail to Lopez where they can disembark at 6:45 p.m. and catch the 7:20 p.m. sailing to Anacortes, arriving at Anacortes at 8 p.m. There are a number of minor time adjustments on the schedule earlier in the day to accommodate this change.

The winter schedule (blue in color: No. 203) can be viewed by clicking on the picture of the ferry at the top of this page: "WSF Updates".