Tag Archives: Washington state ferries

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!

Ferry in to Coupeville

Washington State Ferries cover a wide range of routes.  Some of them are major commuter journeys and the boats are sized to handle lots of cars and passengers.  Others are far more specialized runs that have lower frequencies and capacity.  This can change throughout the year with the peak season demand being way higher than the off-season and larger boats get drafted in.

While I was on the shore at Coupeville, one of the ferries came in.  We actually took this route on a vacation a couple of years ago and it was quite busy then.  This time things were a lot quieter and the boat was clearly not one of the biggest that WSDOT has available.