The times they are a changing

And our island life may be about to change in a big way! 

I live in a small island community in Washington State.  I've been coming to this island my whole life, in fact, my mother went into labor with me here many years ago.  For my lifetime we've had a small 20 car ferry, the Whatcom Chief, that has run a short span from Gooseberry Point to Lummi Island. 

That may be all about to change.  The ferry landing on the mainland side is currently on Lummi Nation land, and there is a negotiation going on between the county and the tribe to determine if the ferry landing will stay on Lummi Tribal land or if it will move, possibly to Bellingham.  The current lease is expiring on February 14th and as of today there is still no public announcement of a resolution to the negotiations.  

So, today our ferry took a test run into Bellingham which may be our temporary solution if they haven't worked out a new lease.  I thought it might be fun to have some photos of the Whatcom Cheif on this new route. 

Going, going still going, she has to run a long way before making the turn into Bellinham Bay

Here she is heading to town.  They got lucky with a beautiful day for a test run, but this long trip could be scary on a stormy day. 

The county crew checking the dock fit for the Victoria Star

Here's the Victoria Star, a passenger only ferry, testing their fit on the dock.  I haven't heard anything official, but I assume there will be some supplimental passenger only runs to Bellingham.

That's Bellingham way off in the distance. 

That's Gooseberry point in the background

Here she is on her run back from town a couple hours later.  This is what we'll be seeing from the deck of the cabin if the route goes permanent to Bellingham.  You can see in the photos that Gooseberry point is a whole lot closer than Bellingham.  The run across to our current ferry dock is about 7 minutes.  The run to Bellingham is about an hour or more depending on the weather.

I'm not sure how this change will affect us.  We already try to limit our trips to town and we really love our life here on Lummi Island.  Hopefully we'll be able to adjust and adapt to whatever the final outcome of this ferry situation is.

No sense in worrying. We'll just have to go with the flow

~Christi