Washington State Ferries and U.S. Coast Guard representatives gathered on board the M/V Salish at the Winslow terminal last Monday for a scheduled evacuation drill, which saw the large emergency slides and rafts deployed and boarded in a simulated crisis scenario.

This drill, the first of its kind conducted in six years, according to WSF officials, is part of the required maritime safety and security operational compliance plan overseen by the Coast Guard.

WSF is currently undertaking a project to have all vessels equipped with sufficient rafts to hold a full boat’s worth of passengers. Most, currently, do not. Hence, later in the day when two-boat routes decrease to one, or a mechanical issue takes one boat off line temporarily, crews are forced to cap passenger capacity short of what the vessel is technically capable of.

As more vessels are better equipped within the next four years, WSF officials said, such situations would no longer be an issue.