PORT TOWNSEND — Passengers have snapped up more than 300 round-trip tickets to catch a high-speed foot ferry from Port Townsend to Seattle this weekend.
Tim Caldwell, Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce general manager, said as of Monday night the chamber had sold more than 300 round-trip tickets for the Port Townsend-to-Seattle Aqua Express passenger ferry weekend runs.
“To be at the break-even level, we needed to sell 280 round-trip tickets,” Caldwell said.
The ferry run has been specially arranged during the Thursday night through Monday morning Hood Canal Bridge closure.
To captivate an expected stream of ferry passengers to downtown Port Townsend, the Main Street Program and downtown merchants are gearing up to throw a “ParTy in PT.”
The weekend bash promises everything from street games, kayak testing, beer and root beer gardens, and Point Hudson open houses to musical entertainment and a number of retail sales and restaurant discounts.
Friday-Sunday ferry runs
Aqua Express passenger-only ferry runs have been scheduled Friday through Sunday to transport North Olympic Peninsula passengers from the Northwest Maritime Center pier at the end of Water Street to the Argosy dock, which is just north of the state ferries’ Colman Dock in downtown Seattle.
It’s a $15 round trip — about an hour and 45 minutes one way — aboard a privately owned boat that serves food and drinks as well as cocktails.
The special ferry service is seen as an alternative to the long detour on U.S. Highway 101 along Hood Canal toward Olympia.
The Hood Canal Bridge will be closed between 8 p.m. Thursday and 4 a.m. Monday as construction crews install a new approach span from land on the Kitsap County side to the floating portion of the bridge.
An identical process will be done on the Jefferson County side Aug. 21-25, forcing a second 3½-day closure.
Caldwell said foot ferry service information is being updated on the chamber’s Web site at www.enjoypt.com.