EDMONDS, Wash. — Ahead of the Fourth of July, Washington State Ferries (WSF) warned boarding wait times may be longer this holiday compared to previous years.
The longer wait times are due to a lack of available ferries. The summer months see twice as many customers as the winter months. The state is running about 400 daily sailings.
In Edmonds, at Waterfront Coffee Company they have a front-row view of the ferry line.
"It gets very packed, very busy," said Haley Goldie, one of the owners at Waterfront Coffee Company. "There's always, you know, issues with the ferries lately with just one boat, two boats."
The WSF is planning for the Fourth of July holiday to be busier than usual between June 28 and July 7.
"We are expecting an average of 100,000 people a day,” said Ian Sterling, Washington State Ferries Spokesperson.
Brock Strickland is one of those travelers, opting for the ferry instead of the freeway.
"With I-5 traffic, the way that it is anymore, you just try to do the best you can,” Strickland said.
Just as the holiday rush was beginning, the state ferry system was hit with a tough task.
"You don't want people dropping crab pots where the ferries travel,” Sterling said. "We have a perfect example in the Suquamish."
The Suquamish which can carry 144 vehicles collided with a crab pot line, and the rope tangled up in the vessel's propeller shaft.
"What that meant was we could have been short one of our bigger vessels for the busy Fourth of July travel period,” Sterling said.
Engineers were able to fix it over the weekend. Now the focus is on the travel forecast.
"If you want to travel when everybody else wants to travel, just like rush hour on the freeway right, it is going to be busy, and you are going to wait,” Sterling said.
"It is all worth it," Strickland said. "Once we get over there and relax and get the boat unhooked, and get it tied up to the dock and all that, that is when the fun starts. Plus, they let off fireworks out there, so it is pretty fun really."
Real-time traffic and ferry information are available on the WSDOT traffic app for mobile devices or online using the updated WSDOT travel map feature.