![]() “When we go out of the lane, we go around people,” he said. This maneuver required taking the boat across the main shipping lanes in northern Puget Sound. The people won’t notice, but the ride is better.” “We’re going to use this (island) as a windbreak. “We’re going to cross to the west,” he said. Mihok changed to a more westerly track to bring the boat closer to Marrowstone Island off the eastern side of the Olympic Peninsula. The ferry was now about 10 miles south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, that is to say about halfway to Victoria. “We might do a bit of a deviation,” he said. ![]() “Everybody navigates by smartphone,” he quipped.Īs the ferry made its way north, with the Olympic Peninsula to port and Whidbey Island to starboard and winds out of the southeast, he noted that wave heights had risen a bit. He sometimes uses this AIS data to identify vessels up ahead so that he can contact them by radio to obtain precise information about conditions he can expect to encounter further along the route. He also uses smartphone apps for tide and currents and for the location of vessels beyond the range of his vessel’s AIS unit. Weather information is also available from NOAA and University of Washington sites. From a website with data from a wave buoy on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, he obtains wind and wave data. One of the first things he did once the ferry was on its way up Puget Sound was to take out his smartphone to gather information about tides, winds and sea states. “I haven’t figured out how to control the weather yet.” While he has not figured out how to control it, he has figured out how to lessen its impact.Īccess to information is key. “The weather is the biggest challenge of the job,” he observed. While he is focused on safe navigation, he is constantly trying to find the route that will make for the smoothest ride for his passengers. He seems particularly well suited to the challenges of fast ferry operations. With the title of staff captain, he oversees all the deck officers, but he also continues to sail as captain. He has been with the ferry company for 20 years, 15 of them as a captain. (The company uses the brand names Victoria Clipper and Clipper Vacations.) When he graduated, the appeal of the sea and a poor market for journalists at the time led him to rethink his career plans. While in college he worked for Clipper Navigation Inc. Mihok is a hawsepiper with a degree in journalism. The comfort of the passengers would be highly dependent on the navigational and boathandling skills of Mihok and his crew. The smooth and pleasant part, however, would not be a given, in view of the winds and wave conditions commonly encountered on Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Or as Mihok described it: “a Norwegian boat with German engines, Swedish waterjets and an American crew going to Canada.” The whole operation has a distinctly international flavor. The 1986 Norwegian-built catamaran is powered by two 2,685-hp MTU 16V 396 TE 74L diesels driving Kamewa waterjets that give the vessel a cruising speed of about 30 knots. ![]() ![]() The quick part would be relatively easy to achieve. ![]() As staff captain, he also oversees the other deck officers. Mihok uses the exterior control station to move the ferry away from the dock in Seattle. Jason Mihok on the bridge of Victoria Clipper IV, one of two fast ferries used on the Seattle-Victoria run. And they were relying on Mihok and the other nine members of the crew to make the voyage quick, smooth and pleasant.Ĭapt. It was a Friday and many of the 222 passengers were looking forward to an enjoyable weekend in Victoria, an attractive seaside city with striking architecture, good restaurants and notable museums. This was a typically raw November day in the Northwest, but back in the passenger compartment people were in a good mood. As the boat headed northwest across Elliott Bay, he throttled up and in a few minutes, the 127-foot catamaran was skimming across Puget Sound at 28 knots, bound for Victoria, British Columbia, about 70 miles and less than three hours away. After pivoting the boat, he headed back inside to the bridge and took up his station there. Jason Mihok stood at the port bridge wing controls preparing to maneuver the ferry Victoria Clipper away from its dock on Seattle’s downtown waterfront.Īt 0800, right on schedule, he ordered a deck hand to release the head line and engaged the ferry’s two waterjets to move the boat astern and away from the dock. ![]()
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