Washington State Ferries (WSF) graciously allowed Inside Bainbridge to ride along with Captain Russell Fee last weekend for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to ferry thousands of people each day around Puget Sound. From fog to “jumpers” to shipping traffic to emergency training to car alarms to engine maintenance, we covered a lot of territory in our 8.6-mile voyage together between Seattle and Bainbridge.
Russell Fee is one of the captains in charge of the Puyallup, as a Jumbo Mark II class ship one of the three largest in the fleet with a carrying capacity of 202 cars and 2,500 people. The Puyallup is currently filling in for the out-of-commission Tacoma ferry on the Seattle/Bainbridge run. The Tacoma experienced massive engine failure in July and is undergoing extensive repairs that are expected to take until late spring to complete (read details here).
I was surprised by Captain Fee’s answer to one of my first questions: What do you like best about your job? He said, “One of my favorite parts is navigating and landing the ferry—it’s never the same twice. It appears mundane, but actually each day is different, from dealing with shipping traffic, variable weather, and medical events.”
Unique Challenges of the Bainbridge Run
Captain Fee explained that the particular challenges of the Seattle/Bainbridge route, the busiest in the system, are navigating in the uniquely narrow channel of Eagle Harbor and dealing with pleasure boats: “At any time arriving and departing there is not much space to maneuver. The first 100 landings your toes are curled,” he said. “And there is the constant challenge of maneuvering around pleasure boats. We don’t hesitate to sound the danger signal of five short blasts.”
Fog
Another major challenge is fog. That’s where the sailing goes both new and old school. The ferries are kept up to date with the latest navigation technology, but when it comes to fog nothing replaces someone standing at the bow. Captain Fee said, “We take the fog very seriously. I put crew members down at the bow as lookouts to report all they hear and see.” He mentioned the recent rough stretch of five days of thick fog last month, during “Fogtober,” that took extra vigilance from the crew. “I’m very proud of the fact that the ferry is very dependable,” he said.
Work Shifts
Another surprise (at least for me) was that ferry captains work in shifts, like firefighters do. Fee said he generally works a 40- or 8o-hour shift in which he sleeps on board in a bunk room. After serving in the Merchant Marine and sailing around the world for years, Fee said he was happy to take a job with WSF that allows him a regular schedule and stable home life: “I like the creature comforts. I’ve never looked back.”
The Engine Rooms
Captain Fee led me down to the bowels of the boat into the engine rooms. Photographs are not allowed for security reasons, so I cannot show you the endless display panels of meters and gizmos beyond my understanding, the elaborate set of jumbo-size wrenches, the huge roaring generators and drive motors, the giant rotating steel propeller shaft, the firefighting equipment, the heavy fire doors that seal off sections against the spread of fire and flood, and the workshop where the engineers and “oilers” work on repairing parts, including literally building some essentially “from scratch.”
Man/Woman Overboard
Chief Engineer Mike Stewart told me that basic and advanced firefighting is a crucial part of the crew’s ongoing training “for damage control and search and rescue.” Although there have been no major fires on a WSF ferry, the crew regularly assists with water rescues, such as an incident last summer in which the Wenatchee crew rescued a boater in distress who had fallen out of his yacht (read more here). There also are the rescues of people who fall or jump off the boats. Stewart described a woman who jumped overboard “dressed in black in the dead of night.” He said the crew called, “Man overboard,” threw the boat into reverse, and used search lights to find the woman and pull her to safety. He recalled another person not so lucky who was sitting on the railing of the Issaquah ferry wearing a heavy backpack and who then fell backward into the water. Other passengers saw the man fall and floating in the water, but his body went down before rescuers could reach him. Stewart said rescues are common near the Kingston terminal because scuba divers routinely run into trouble in the diving water park there.
Car Alarms
Captain Fee wasn’t sure how often car alarms go off, but he said it happens a lot and that it is always an expensive car. He laughed, saying, “We haven’t had a car stolen from the boat yet.”
Seahawks Super Bowl Victory Parade Day
I asked Captain Fee about other unusual events on the boats, and he mentioned the day of the Seahawks Super Bowl victory parade last winter. “The boats appear full during commute times, but I’ve never seen anything like that day,” he said. “We had full capacity (2,500 passengers), packed with each person occupying their own little two to three square feet of standing space.”
Safety and Security
As for security on the ferries since the 9/11 attacks, Captain Fee said the Coast Guard requires the ferries to take safety and security risks very seriously and notify them of vehicles and bicycles left unattended at disembarking. Although such cases are usually a matter of people forgetting they rode or drove on or forgetting where they left their vehicles, the crew must treat such incidents as missing persons cases and possible security risks until established otherwise. After investigation, WSF must get clearance from the Coast Guard before setting sail. Similarly, baggage left unattended is considered a risk until investigated. Fee recalled the days when people would send things, such as boxes of bagels, unattended via the ferries to be picked up on the other side. “That practice is now a thing of the past,” he said.
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Lead photo of Captain Fee in Wheel House by Julie Hall. Other photo courtesy of Steve Voght.
