The West Seattle Water Taxi‘s regular vessel Rachel Marie is back in service after almost a week of repair work. It was returned to the run without fanfare yesterday afternoon, according to this update on the county website, which means the Melissa Ann is back on the Vashon route.

(WSB photo of Rachel Marie, from last month)>
7:53 PM: Just in from King County:

Over the weekend, the Water Taxi crew discovered a small crack in the hull plating of the Rachel Marie. The King County Marine Division has made arrangements to use another vessel, the Victoria Express, while the Rachel Marie is being repaired. The Victoria Express is a mono-hulled vessel of similar passenger capacity to the Rachel Marie and Melissa Ann, but it travels at slightly slower speeds and its length is better suited for the Vashon dock than the Seacrest dock in West Seattle. So beginning on Monday, June 6, the Victoria Express will be put into service on the Vashon Island/Downtown Seattle route, and the Melissa Ann will provide service on the West Seattle/Downtown Seattle route.

ADDED 8:09 PM: The issue of a backup vessel is one the county had been working on since other recent problems that pulled the Rachel Marie out of service, according to Michelle Allison from the office of King County Councilmember Joe McDermott (who is King County Ferry District board chair). We had also asked her recently about the status of the plan for the county eventually to have new boats built for the West Seattle and Vashon runs:

We recently wrapped up an expert review panel and expect the final report soon. This was an important step for us in discussing what elements our new boats should include – the number of passengers, technical specifications, etc. Once the Board receives the final report, they will spend some time reviewing and then they will develop the detailed procurement documents needed to secure a builder.

Background on the RM and its recent history of trouble, ahead:Read More

On the West Seattle Water Taxi‘s downtown pier about an hour ago, King County Ferry District board chair Joe McDermott and member Larry Phillips honored the crew who rescued a diver. Here’s our coverage from May 10th, including a photo of the Rachel Marie just off Seacrest during the rescue. As was recounted in coverage that day, Captain Neal Amaral maneuvered the passenger ferry into place, and crewmember Aaron Barnett jumped into the water till the diver was safely secured into a sling.

Also honored (our video shows the short ceremony in its entirety), their fellow crewmembers Frank Massaro – who received a citation last year from the U.S. Coast Guard for rescuing a man in the water near Pier 50 – and engineer Vik Misic. All of their roles in the rescue are recapped in today’s county news release – click ahead to read it in its entirety:Read More

The county says the Rachel Marie has been repaired and will be back on its regular West Seattle-Downtown Seattle Water Taxi schedule tomorrow. They also say the delay in getting an alert out about this morning’s sudden problem was because it took a while for the crew to figure out what was wrong and how serious it was, and they’ll try to be faster in the future.

Just in from King County Department of Transportation:

West Seattle-Downtown Seattle Water Taxi service has been canceled for the remainder of the day due to a mechanical problem. Metro DART shuttles 773 and 775 are operating on their regular schedules.

An update about tomorrow’s Water Taxi service will be provided this evening. Please monitor service alerts, check the Water Taxi web site, kingcounty.gov/watertaxi, or call the Water Taxi information line at 206-684-1551.

Metro Route 37 provides service between downtown Seattle and Alki during commute hours. Visit www.kingcounty.gov/metro or call the Metro Customer Information Office at 206-553-3000 for trip planning information.

And of course we’ll have an update here once the outlook for tomorrow is made public. We first reported the problems with the Water Taxi shortly after 8 this morning, thanks to WSB’ers who called/texted/e-mailed, and that was more than an hour before official alerts were issued. If you have news to share, 206-293-6302 any time (other ways to contact us are listed here).

(EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ll add updates to this story as the morning goes on when new info is available)

8:18 AM: We haven’t officially confirmed it, and no alert has come from the county, but we’ve received two reports now that something is going on with the West Seattle Water Taxi. More to come as soon as we get something confirmed.

8:34 AM UPDATE: Tracy sent a note saying she’s been told it’s out of service for at least two hours. Jim sent the photo we’ve added above, saying it’s in the water south of Seacrest with what he believes is a police boat, lights on, nearby.

9 AM UPDATE: Another photo, from Al, which clearly shows a boat labeled police; SPD isn’t showing anything in the area. A county spokesperson is handling our inquiry but still no official info on what’s going on.

9:07 AM UPDATE: Mechanical problem, Rochelle Ogershok with King County Department of Transportation now confirms. She says they haven’t figured out yet how the schedule will be affected. We’re also asking why the alert system didn’t kick in, since this has been going on for at least an hour and there’s been no text alert for riders to warn them of a problem.

9:42 AM UPDATE: The official text alert has now arrived, saying the boat will be out of service TFN.

Going to the Sounders game on Saturday night (after West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day)? Just got word that the West Seattle Water Taxi is adding a late run to accommodate fans afterward – an 11 pm departure from Pier 50 to Seacrest.

Thanks to everyone who’s asked about the fire/police response to Seacrest late this morning. A diver got into trouble – but there’s more to the story, as you can see in the photo above, shared by Roger. King County Department of Transportation spokesperson Rochelle Ogershok confirms that as the Rachel Marie was pulling into Seacrest, one of their crew members spotted “someone waving in the water, as though they were in trouble. When they got closer, they could see something was wrong. So the deckhand jumped into the water,” and managed to get the diver out of the water. The Coast Guard was called, and they along with other authorities took over. We know Seattle Fire units responded and are waiting for official word from them; WSB contributor Katie Meyer says scanner traffic at the time indicated the diver was described as a man around 50, believed to have been in distress after a rapid ascent. We’ll add any more information we get about his status.

ADDED 5:31 PM: SFD didn’t have additional information about the diver, aside from the same info we reported above. However, there’s a bit more about the heroism. KCDOT hadn’t heard about this just yet when we called – but now they’ve put together an entire news release:

King County employees participated in the rescue of a distressed scuba diver Tuesday morning as the Rachel Marie water taxi pulled away from the Seacrest Dock for their regularly scheduled 11 a.m. sailing. Several passengers witnessed the rescue operation.

“This rescue is yet another example of our county employees’ deep commitment to public service and their instinct to go beyond the call of duty,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “I thank the crew of the Rachel Marie for their good work, and I wish the diver a speedy recovery.”

Shortly into the trip across Elliott Bay, the ship’s crew noticed a diver who appeared to be in distress. The boat captain, Neal Amaral, maneuvered the vessel close to the diver as he called for assistance over the radio. Crew member Aaron Barnett [county photo at right], quickly dressed in an onboard rescue suit, jumped into the water, and assisted the diver. Barnett was in the water for about 10 minutes while the diver was maneuvered into a sling.

“We knew what we had to do when we saw him. There was no other option,” said Barnett, the deckhand who dove into the water to assist the diver. “We all worked together as a team. I just happened to be the one who went in the water, but the whole crew pulled together to help him. I’m just glad we saw him, and we hope he’s okay.”

The Seattle Port Police responded to the radio call in their vessel, and they, along with the Coast Guard, were able to get the diver to land and to the hospital for medical care. His condition is unknown at this time.

“I commend the entire crew of the Rachel Marie for their quick-thinking and heroic actions this morning,” Ferry District Chair Joe McDermott said. “Their actions and those of the Coast Guard and Port Police helped to secure a successful rescue.”

Barnett and Captain Amaral are both former U.S. Coast Guard members. Barnett plans to graduate from the University of Washington this spring with a graduate degree in Marine Affairs.

3:24 PM: Just in from the King County Department of Transportation’s Marine Division: The West Seattle Water Taxi‘s runs are now canceled for the rest of today, because repair of what was described as a “defective weld” in the hull of the Rachel Marie is taking longer. The county is expecting to resume West Seattle Water Taxi service tomorrow morning.

5 PM UPDATE: The county confirms service will resume tomorrow.

Just in from King County’s Marine Division:

All West Seattle Water Taxi trips for Wednesday, April 27 are cancelled through at least the morning so that warranty repairs can be made to a small defective weld in the vessel hull. Tomorrow’s cancellation will allow the King County Marine Division to take advantage of available dry dock space.

While the Marine Division hopes repairs can be made in time to resume service for the Wednesday afternoon commute, passengers are advised to monitor e-mail/text service alerts, visit the Water Taxi website at www.kingcounty.gov/watertaxi, or call 206-684-1551.

On the day the King County Water Taxi‘s West Seattle-Downtown Seattle run switched to its warm-season schedule – with blue sky and sunshine in abundance – it was the perfect day to ride roundtrip with the County Councilmember who now chairs the Ferry District Board and is about to take over its Executive Committee as well, for a talk about the service’s future.

Councilmember Joe McDermott of West Seattle brought King County Marine Division director Scott Davis as we rode roundtrip to and from downtown at noontime. Longer story in the works, but a few toplines here; both feel strongly that the county’s marine operations have come out of a rocky year stronger than ever, in terms of leadership and operations. The latter still has a hole to fill; when the Ferry District Board has its quarterly meeting next week, Councilmember McDermott says, they’ll be reviewing proposals they’ve received for executive-director services – which he foresees will be filled with a consultant-type contract, rather than a full-time employee.

Later in the year, longterm finances for the Ferry District need to be settled, with another look at its levy rate, which is currently less than 10 percent of what it originally was. And Marine Division leadership is currently evaluating a report on potential criteria for the boats it plans to have built (with millions in federal funding available for the project). But bottom line – for those who thought the Water Taxi was on the ropes because of recent controversies from the downtown crash (final report’s not out yet) to thefts (Davis says security policies have been tightened) to operating costs (also tightened, and farebox receipts, McDermott says, are up) – the county insists that, with transit part of its core mission, the Water Taxi is here to stay. (Remember it’s running late tonight for the M’s home opener – here’s the schedule.) More in the longer story.

(WSB photo of Rachel Marie @ Seacrest Pier on Thursday morning)
If you’re going to the Mariners’ home opener tomorrow night, don’t forget that the King County Water Taxi‘s West Seattle-Downtown Seattle run is an option for getting there and back. That’s because tomorrow is the day the Water Taxi launches its spring/summer schedule, which means adding midday and weekend runs back to the plan. You can see the full schedule here. It includes special evening service to Mariners and Sounders home games through October 30th, according to the county. As for the shuttle buses, here’s how their changes are explained:

Shuttle routes 773 and 775 will remain in service through the afternoon/evening commute period, but will not serve any arrivals or departures into West Seattle past 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. However, Sunday shuttle service will be extended to serve passengers taking the final 8 p.m. Water Taxi trip from downtown Seattle.

This is the first year the Water Taxi has run year-round – since last fall, it’s been on a weekday-commute-times-only schedule.

Just in from King County:

The King County Water Taxi West Seattle route will resume service Monday morning, March 28 on the regular schedule. The Rachel Marie has been repaired.

It was taken out of service at midday last Tuesday, with no replacement.

3:27 PM: Just in from King County:

Service on the West Seattle Water Taxi is cancelled this afternoon because the Rachel Marie [WSB file photo at left] is undergoing repairs. Service will not resume before next Monday, March 28. Passengers should watch for service updates later in the week and over the weekend via the Water Taxi website and subscriber alerts.

… and, of course, here. ADDED 4:05 PM: Linda Thielke with county DOT says the problem was discovered yesterday; the decision for “more extensive repairs” was made today. ADDED 4:18 PM: Matt Reichmann with county DOT answered our question about exactly what’s wrong:

*A small fracture was discovered in the hull of the Rachel Marie below the waterline. The King County Marine Division, in coordination with the Coast Guard, have developed a repair plan to repair the vessel’s aluminum hull plating in way of the fracture. This work will require the Rachel Marie to be put up in dry-dock and be taken out of service through at least the end of this week. …We don’t know when it happened. It was discovered after Monday’s commute and temporary repairs were made for this morning.

We also asked why the Rachel Marie wasn’t being replaced with an Argosy vessel, as it had been for much of the time after last year’s crash; the county says that was investigated but is “not feasible” for this week.

(Photo from earlier this month, by Christopher Boffoli)
The Melissa Ann‘s been fixed and that means as of now, both the Vashon and West Seattle Water Taxi services return to their regular schedule – that word just in from King County Department of Transportation‘s Marine Division. (The Melissa Ann had trouble again yesterday afternoon, and Rachel Marie was moved to Vashon service to cover.)

4:10 PM: King County Water Taxi just e-mailed word that West Seattle runs are canceled from 4:15 pm through 7 pm (that means, the rest of the day/night) because of a “mechanical issue.” Checking for more details.

4:42 PM UPDATE: As was the case last time, this is because of a problem with the boat that serves Vashon. The county just sent full details – news release after the jump. First, another update:

7:34 PM UPDATE: The latest update says the West Seattle Water Taxi service is canceled “till further notice.” To clarify whether any change was expected tonight, or whether this meant it’s likely there’ll be no service tomorrow, we checked with Rochelle Ogershok at KC Department of Transportation; at this point, she confirmed, West Seattle Water Taxi service is NOT likely tomorrow – Rachel Marie will keep filling in for Melissa Ann. Now, the enws release from three hours ago:Read More