PORT TOWNSEND — The MV Salish left Port Townsend on its maiden service voyage to Whidbey Island across Admiralty Inlet just a few minutes past its scheduled noon departure Friday and carried 55 vehicles — with 64 passengers in cars — and 40 bicyclists and other walk-ons.
The first walk-on passenger made an effort to earn that distinction, while the driver of the first vehicle aboard the 64-car ferry got there by accident.
Rex Carlow, a member of the Kingston Ferry Commission, arrived in Port Townsend at around 11:20 a.m. and was the first through the turnstile, leading the first batch of about a dozen other passengers.
Carlow, a longtime ferry enthusiast, stood on the ferry’s rear deck and watched the first vehicles drive down the ramp.
The first vehicle driven onto the ferry was a 39-foot recreational vehicle driven by Ken Balthaser of Placerville, Calif.
Balthaser’s first-on-the-boat status wasn’t planned.
“This was total serendipity,” he said.
Friday’s sailing was the first time two ferries have served the Port Townsend-Coupeville route since the Steel Electrics were taken out of service in November 2007.
The Salish was welcomed Thursday with a community celebration that drew some 300 people.
The boat joined its sister ship, the MV Chetzemoka, which began serving the route in November, taking over from the MV Steilacoom II, which the state leased from Pierce County.
Balthaser and his wife, Eiko, are touring the Northwest and had made reservations two weeks ago without knowing that Friday’s trip would be the maiden voyage of a new ferry.
The Balthasers camped at Ford Worden State Park on Thursday night and arrived early for the sailing.
They would not fit on the 11:15 a.m. sailing of the Chetzemoka since they were towing a passenger car and had to wait in an adjacent parking lot.
Several walk-ons arrived at 11:59 a.m. and were told they could make the sailing if they hurried, but they had the wrong ticket and could not make it through the turnstile.
The walk-ons split up and agreed to meet back at the terminal in 40 minutes for the next sailing.
Before the Salish, they would have had to wait an hour and a half.
The Salish is the second of three Kwa-di Tabil Class ferryboats contracted by the state at a cost of $213.2 million.
The first was the Chetzemoka. The third, the MV Kennewick, will work the Point Defiance-to-Tahlequah route once it enters service this winter.
“This is a momentous occasion, as it marks the first time in nearly four years that we are providing two-boat service on this important connection between Whidbey Island and the Olympic Peninsula,” said David Moseley, state ferries chief, in his weekly newsletter published Friday.
“It is even more reason to celebrate that we were able to put the Salish into service in time for our busiest weekend of the year” on the Fourth of July holiday.
Two-boat service will continue on the Port Townsend-Coupeville route until Oct. 10, when the route will have only one boat to allow ferries on other state routes to undergo maintenance during the winter, returning to two-ferry service in the spring.
For schedule information, visit http://tinyurl.com/444nox6.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.