Tag Archives: Washington state ferries

Demolition of the Old Mukilteo Terminal

With the new terminal open and operational at Mukilteo, the construction crews have turned their attention to the demolition of the old terminal facilities.  The redevelopment of the waterfront includes returning this old space for new usage.  The old terminal building was not a particularly impressive structure but now it looks very sad as everything is taken down.

Across the road, the old lanes for holding the cars prior to boarding are still visible but some of the area has already been cut through by the new access road construction for the terminal.  One side of the old lot was briefly the home for one of the toll booths which looked rather feeble on its own.  Next time I was there, it was gone.

The old span that connected to the berth has been lifted out.  It was sitting on a barge on my last visit.  A large floating crane had been brought in for the large lifts where a smaller crane had previously been in use.  The structures were in the process of being removed.  The concrete top to one side had been removed and the posts showed the damage from the cuts.  The other side had a crew preparing the lifting lines to take that side off too.

It won’t be too long before all trace of the old terminal is gone and then it will be very hard to remember what it looked like at all.

Ferries in the Mist

The misty mornings at Orcas were not only pretty atmospheric to wake up to but they also could make for interesting shots of the ferries.  As the banks of fog rolled in and out, the boats could disappear and reappear.  As they backed out and spun around, they could be right on the edge of disappearing.  Since we were facing south, the whole scene was backlit which made it look even more interesting.

New Mukilteo Terminal

Washington State Ferries have opened their first new terminal in 40 years.  Calling it a new terminal is a bit deceptive – it is a replacement for an existing terminal – but it is definitely a new place for the ferries to come in.  It is the new Mukilteo terminal and it is located about a third of a mile from the previous terminal.  That one was right at the end of Mukilteo Speedway next to the lighthouse.  The new location is east along the shore near the old Air Force tank farm location.

The construction has been underway for a while and the switch over happened on December 29, 2020.  The ferries didn’t run for much of that day as they moved some key equipment across from the old location.  Additionally, the crews took the opportunity to get practice with berthing in the new facility.  The transition was done ahead of the holiday to make sure that the surge in traffic over New Year wasn’t affected.

I took a walk along the shore on two days later to see what it all looked like.  The weather was hardly delightful but it was December in the Pacific Northwest so no great shock there.  Additionally, not everything was complete.  The main facilities are open but they have yet to install the passenger footbridge.  That will go in around February/March time.  For now, passenger walk across the road access (not while cars are there, of course!).

That also means some of the construction equipment is still in place.  A large floating crane is still there and will be, I assume, until the footbridge is completed.  They are also tidying up some of the other elements but they should be done pretty soon.

There is a new toll plaza on the entrance to the holding lots.  I didn’t go up to take a look at that but I did get some photos from a distance.  The demand for service was really high on this day with everyone heading home for their New Year celebrations.  Despite the large holding lanes, it was full and traffic was waiting beyond the plaza and up the hill.

The main building is a really elegant structure.  Lots of wood construction and styled on a native long house, it contains an information center, a ticket office and some other facilities.  There is lots of native art decorating it both inside and out including a cool boat hanging from the roof.  The building is elevated over the road access.  The ramp for loading comes straight in to the shore and leads directly under the building.  It means you have a nice elevated view of the boats as the come and go.

There is a waterfront trail that runs from up near the lighthouse to a park further to the east so you can walk along the shore to see the facilities and watch the boats.  Near the terminal, there are many information boards giving some history of the region and these are quite educational.  On a sunnier day, I can imagine there will be plenty of people enjoying this part of the shoreline and checking out the ferry traffic.

Experimenting With Night Shots of Ferries

With the ferries coming and going to the terminal at Orcas, I was able to have plenty of chances to take photos.  I did get standard shots of the boats in low light conditions.  They are not easy to shoot since they are constantly moving.  No long exposures at low ISOs are possible so it is high ISO and the associated noise.  However, I did decide to experiment with some long exposures and blending of shots.  The boats make a curving approach to the terminal.  I thought this might make a nice long exposure.  It worked okay but the curve is a bit disguised by being too low down to really appreciate it.  However, it was fun to try.

Port Townsend Ferry

The Washington State Ferry from Port Townsend comes into the Keystone Harbor. I figured I would await its arrival.  The shallow harbor means that they have smaller ferries for this route.  They were actually in the process of dredging the harbor at the time of my visit to maintain access for the ferry.  Even though it is a smaller ferry, when you are standing at the water’s edge, it is definitely more imposing.  They turned the ferry pretty quickly since the vehicle traffic didn’t look too heavy.  I think the rougher crossing might have slowed them down so a quick turn helped keep the schedule.

Winter Light on the Ferries

I spent some time early one morning waiting for the return of a warship as covered in this post.  It was dark and rainy when I first got there but then the sun snuck under the clouds and the result was some very pleasing light.  I was down in Mukilteo which is the departure point for the ferry to Whidbey Island.  They leave every half hour and I was able to get a few departures while I waited and after the ship has passed through.  The white superstructure of the ferries glowed in the morning light with the dark background of the island behind them.

Seattle From Elliott Bay

The ferry ride back to Seattle was later in the afternoon.  We were asked to stay on the car deck in our vehicles but we could walk around the deck if we wanted.  Everyone around us was wearing masks – as was I – so I was happy to get out of the car in the fresh air and look at the city coming towards us (just depends on your frame of reference physics geeks).  Here are some shots of the skyline from the boat as we got closer to the terminal.

Stored Ferries

Bainbridge Island is the location of Eagle Harbor.  This is the maintenance base for the Washington State Ferries.  Look at it on Google Maps and you will see a ferry moored up in maintenance or long term storage.  However, since the onset of the pandemic, the ferries have been operating at a reduced schedule.  This has continued even though traffic levels during summer have increased markedly.  This reduced schedule means not all ferries are in service and a bunch are stored at Eagle Harbor.  Shooting in to the sun is not ideal but it was the only available shot.  Here are some of the ferries either in storage or awaiting a return to the full schedule.

Ferries and Freighters from Above

Our aerial adventure with Kenmore Air included a lot of time over the waters of Puget Sound.  Very little time was spent over land.  The waters were not very busy but there was enough boat traffic to see as we soared overhead.  We weren’t always close, though, so sometimes things were watched from a distance.  We did have a pretty close pass on a freighter though.  It was making good speed heading into the sound.

Ferry traffic is a regular thing to see with the Washington State Ferries heading to and fro across the waters.  As we were closing in on Friday Harbor, we saw one ferry.  It was a smaller one that was running between the islands and it was a bit hard to get a good view of.  The ferries between Edmonds and Kingston are a lot more heavily used and so are a lot bigger.  They were passing each other mid crossing as we ran south so I managed to get a few shots of them from above as we headed overhead.

Mukilteo Lighthouse and Some Ferries

I had previously got a few shots of the lighthouse at Mukilteo while waiting to catch a ferry.  I hadn’t wandered around for long though.  While showing my mum around the area, we stopped off to have a look at Puget Sound.  It was a cloudy day but the sun was making the occasional appearance.  We wandered around the lighthouse buildings and went to watch the ferries come and go to Whidbey Island.

After a short while, the clouds briefly parted.  I headed back from the water’s edge to try and get a couple of photos of the lighthouse in sunlight.  The white structure is hardly interesting when it is very cloudy, even when playing with some options for exposure to give alternatives in post processing.  A bit of light makes all the difference.

The same could be said for the ferries.  Out on the water, they would pass through patches of sunlight when they would suddenly “pop”.  A short distance closer in and then they were back out of the light.  You had to take the chance when it presented itself!