NWRetail presents an NWTransport special: the fast (and slow) ferries of Kitsap County

Welcome to the MV Rich Passage 1! This ferry was built in 2011 as an experimental low-wake passenger ferry, and finally entered real service in 2017 after Kitsap County voters approved a sales-tax measure to fund regional fast ferry service. (See, I can use the same opening line template for everything! 😉) This ferry currently operates on the Seattle-Bremerton route, the first of several planned passenger-only ferry routes between Seattle and Kitsap County. This is the latest of many attempts, by both various governmental agencies as well as several private companies, to offer cross-Puget Sound foot ferry service since the state cut its funding in the early 2000s, and seems to be the most successful by far. For much more information on the ferry and system, see this Wikipedia page.

It was a beautiful August day last summer when I went out to the Port Orchard Albertsons, quite different from today's 30-degree snowy weather (Seattle's one day of snow for the year...). Sadly, I only thought to take pictures to post once we were already underway, hence this abrupt introduction. Don't worry, though, I certainly made up for it in volume -- I actually took more pictures from my ferry rides than of the store itself! I've always said (or at least thought to myself) that the journey to and from is at least half the fun of this project for me, and now I'm finally starting to share that (at least a little bit) with all of you. 🙂

Here's a view across the cabin, looking over towards one of the state's car ferries that we were passing. The cabin here is certainly rather small and spartan compared to what I'm used to on the state ferries, but on this run, the travel time is half that of traditional ferries. Sadly, the passenger capacity is less than a tenth that of the mainline ferries, making this a niche option for the few people lucky enough to snag places on board.

Look, ma, no wake! One of the issues associated with this service is the relatively narrow Rich Passage area, from which this ship takes its name. The stretch is lined by very wealthy people's beachfront mansions (OK, it's not Mercer Island (Paul Allen) or Medina (Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates), but still!), and as would be expected, they've sued the state over and over claiming erosion due to ferry wakes, dooming all previous attempts to speed up ferry service. Getting a ferry that could go through the passage at faster than a crawl without making everyone lawyer up was a major technical challenge, but it seems to have worked out for them this time! Of course, as a one-of-a-kind vessel, there have certainly been some fairly large reliability challenges associated with this service, but it's still pretty impressive.

Here's my terrible attempt at a shot looking back at the Rich Passage 1 from the Bremerton terminal. All of my connections on this trip were a bit tight for my comfort, at least when dealing with such infrequent transit, so my pictures from land are all fairly rushed.

Turning around, what's that in the distance?

It's the MV Carlisle II! If that last ship represented the pinnacle of modern ferry design, this is the exact opposite -- the last of the old Mosquito Fleet passenger ferries still in service, this ferry was built in 1917. Despite being over 100 years old, the Carlisle II is still the backbone of the Kitsap Transit "local" foot ferry fleet, running daily on the short hop between Bremerton and Port Orchard. Here's some more history on this boat.

The inside of this ship is also a world apart from that of Kitsap Transit's fancy new toy, trading airplane-like seats for old-fashioned wood benches. It's pretty claustrophobic in here too -- good thing I was here on a nice day and could hang out on the exterior decks! (Not sure why I took pictures of the upper deck first, but whatever...)

 The inside of the ship was filled with historic photos, mostly of various Mosquito Fleet vessels.

The most prominent was, unsurprisingly, a large picture of the ship itself, packed to the brim back in its heyday. While I doubt any of the buildings in the background still exist, the ship itself has, clearly, hardly changed at all.

There was also this cool map of the Mosquito Fleet network, which sadly got glared out. Still, it's neat to see the coverage of the old network, converging on a hub in Seattle (at least, I'm assuming that's what the grey bit at the top represents -- I always get a little confused with maps that are sideways like this!). It's too bad to see this reduced to this little network of point-to-point routes, and ones that tend to be very car-centered at that.

The back of the boat has this little round outside deck, something I associate with the vaporetti of Venice.

As that big plaque shows, this ship has officially been designated as a "floating museum". While I'm not sure what practical meaning that has, it's still pretty cool to see.

The front portion of the lower deck is particularly claustrophobic. It really feels like you're down in the hull here!

This picture, taken from the upper deck of the Carlisle II, is probably my best side picture of the Rich Passage 1. At this point, it still had its "research vessel" lettering, which I believe has since been removed.

The Walla Walla is one of Washington State Ferries' larger ships. It's also one of the ones I've ridden on the most, since it normally hangs out up on the Edmonds-Kingston route. Built in 1972, it's not exactly new, but it's still newer than quite a few WSF ferries. And yes, it is the one we passed in the second picture way back in Seattle, just now getting over to Bremerton as I'm already on my way out.

Here's a wider-angle shot back at the Bremerton terminal. As the Rich Passage 1 prepares to depart, the Walla Walla (which got a good head start on it) is finally docking.

Here's the ship's nameplate, proudly proclaiming its 1917 build date. Those windows lead into the the wheelhouse, which also looks to have hardly been updated since the ferry was built.

Look at that wake! Despite going at an incredibly slow pace, this ferry kicked up a higher wake than the Rich Passage 1 ever does. What a difference 100 years makes!

Here's a shot from the Port Orchard terminal when I was on my way back, showing the Carlisle II coming to pick me up with one of the state ferries in the background.

Jumping back to Bremerton, here's a panorama again showing the three very different types of ferries to be found there. This time, however, the RP1 isn't the newest one here, as the car ferry is one of the brand new Olympic class (probably Chimacum, but I'm not completely sure). In the time I was at the Albertsons, the fast ferry completed one whole round trip, while the state ferries were only able to do an one-way trip each.

I sat in the same seat going both ways. On my outbound trip, this vent was still perfectly intact, so someone managed to destroy it this badly in just one round trip. What is wrong with people?! Anyways, one of the (minor) issues with this ferry is the lack of air conditioning, or seemingly any type of ventilation in the summer. While our summers never get overly hot (or at least they never used to...), the cabin's heat issue has been a small point of contention with regular riders.

Just another picture looking back at how insanely little wake this ship creates.

I'm not sure if this picture was supposed to be looking at the barge or over towards the stadiums, but either way, here you go...

To cap this off, here's the best picture of the downtown skyline I was able to capture. The seats are really sunk down in the hull, which makes the forward view not as good as it could be.

Hope everyone liked this little diversion from the normal! If not, well, I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. If so, don't get your hopes up too much as I only have a few more of these coming up, and likely none as interesting as this one. But transportation posts will pop up on occasion from now on, even if it's just a couple per year. I'd appreciate all your feedback, and again, back to Albertsons tomorrow!