AN IRRATIONAL ACT .... with added chart detail

NOAA paper Chart 18434
7th edition corrected April 2008

This captured detail depicts
Grindstone Harbor, 
and associated rocks on the coast of
Orcas Island, San Juan County, WA.,
and the WSF dock at
Shaw Island, SJC, WA.
Since this chart edition, the name of 
Harney Channel has been officially
changed to Henry Cayou Channel.
Click image to enlarge.
Chart from the archives of 
Saltwater People Historical Society

Album cover
from the 
Saltwater People Historical Society Archives©.

Graphics by Al Hamilton.
Click image to enlarge.
From the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

Words below by Matt Pranger

Published by the Journal of the San Juans

10 September 1999

 Remembering the ELWHA 

"The Washington State Ferry ELWHA is immortalized in song and as a geological feature. 

        A rarely seen rock was named for the ELWHA, which rammed it on 2 October 1983. Located 500 yards west of Grindstone Harbor off Orcas Island, Elwha Rock is visible at zero tide. The U.S. Board of Geographic Names officially christened the rock on 14 June 1990.

        A Native American word for elk, the ELWHA has a tragic-comic history. In a sworn affidavit, the ferry's captain said he showed a woman her home in Grindstone Harbor about 6 p.m. when the vessel hit the rock at 17.5 knots–full speed for the 382-ft, 2,813 G.T. ship.

        Calling it a 'totally irrational act,' the ferry system manager  compared the crash to a 'Pan Am pilot flying a 747 jumbo jet under the Tacoma Narrows ridge on the way to SeaTac.'

        After the crash, the captain proceeded to Shaw Island, unloaded and picked up passengers, and headed to Orcas before his vessel lost steerage. [The Orcas Island Fire Department met the ship with pumps to aid in the water coming aboard through the gash in the steel hull.]  

        According to a passenger, the ferry did a donut in the middle of [Henry Cayou] Channel. The crash rattled windows on shore, but no announcement was made to passengers that anything extraordinary had happened until 35 minutes later when the boat docked at Orcas.

        The ferry skipper, who had a history of skimming the shoreline and tooting ship's horns for female islanders, retired and was forced to turn in his pilot's license. The woman was dubbed the Siren of the San Juans.

        

THE ISLAND CITY JAZZ BAND
Band members: 
Lynda Travis 
Gary Provonsha, Tom Skoog, 
 Don Anderson, Tom and Bill Bassen,
Skip McDaniel, Vern Conrad,
George Burns, Don Smith. 
This press photo 
 was published by the 
sponsoring Jazz Festival in 1985.
Click image to enlarge.

The wonderful photo was taken by 
Al Hamilton, formerly of this port.
He tells of the car being a 1937 Cadillac
owned by the Tarte family of Roche Harbor.

The injured ferry was repaired,
 the rock in Grindstone Harbor was christened
with a name, and the much loved band
played on for happy islanders
 for many years.
Capt. Fittro lost his master's license and his job;
 Capt. Nick Tracy, the general manager
of the WSF also lost his job with the state.
Original photo from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

        Elwha On the Rocks was penned by island musician Gary Provonsha. His group, the Island City Jazz Band, recorded the tune with George Burns; it became popular in island watering holes and Seattle area radio stations. 'A light-hearted joke at what the Island City Jazz Band considers the best ferry system in the world, run by some of the most professional captains, skippers, and pilots. What can be said of a system that has safely carried millions of people through small islands, over shoals and sandbars, with no major incidents–well, almost no incidents,' the band stated on the 45 rpm record's jacket.

        Drinks, called 'Elwha on the Rocks,' were poured in local bars, and residents of the shoreline near the rock dubbed a half-mile road west of Grindstone Harbor, 'Elwha Road.'

        The ELWHA also made headlines in January 1994, after it lost power and drifted sideways into the Anacortes dock, causing $500,000 in damage to the ferry loading bridge. The ship was out of service one week after that rash.

        The ferry's most recent notable mishap occurred three years ago when it grounded briefly at the south end of San Juan Island. The vessel, servicing the international run from Anacortes to Sidney, B.C., was making a rare trip through Cattle Pass.

        ELWHA, a Super Class ferry, went into service in 1967 and underwent a $25 million renovation in 1993. She was retired from state service in 2020." 

Here's a sampling from Maribeth Morris's "Action" column in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1983; lyrics and music by Gary Provonsha, Friday Harbor, WA.

"Out in Friday Harbor where the jazz bands play,

You can take a ferry out there almost any time of day.

You can cruise through Grindstone's Harbor and when the ferry docks,

You pour a long, tall, cold one called Elwha on the Rocks.

With the lady in the wheelhouse, you can cruise along the shore.

You can blow the ferry's whistle as you pass by her front door.

You can blame it on the steering if the ferry rams the dock.

And we'll pour a long tall, cold one called Elwha on the Rocks.

We love our ferry system–it's always in the news:

We're changing to computers cuz computers don't drink booze.

As we cruise from Grindstone's Harbor and she comes around the bend,

The captain has her cruising–at three sheets to the wind.

You can have your Margueritas. You can have your toddy's hot.

But all we're drinking here tonight is Elwha on the Rocks."