Went sailing on Puget Sound (or the Whulge) yesterday, from Edmonds to Kingston. Beautiful day for it, though my youngest Able Seaman succumbed to seasickness and chundered on the coaming . . . .
Interesting to see that the Edmonds to Kingston ferry has a Coast Guard escort — two extremely fast patrol boats with 50 calibre machine guns fore and aft — while the return trip is unprotected. 
As the master and commander of our vessel pointed out, if one were wanted to target a passenger-carrying ship and saw both (since they pass each other on their runs) would you choose the one with 2 zippy little escorts or the other one?
[composed and posted with ecto]
Forgive my poor spelling and grammer usage, I was in the military while you were in college.
In reference to “your tax dollars at work”
I was one of the coxswains of those small craft for 3 years. One of our primary missions is a show of force or a visual deterrent, if you will. the USCG doesn’t have the assets or the man power to sustain 24/7 ferry escorts on every ferry boat in the US since we are working with only a 40,000 man power service. where less than a quarter of that man power is qualified to run on those vessels. our scheduled change very often so we often don’t even know if we are coming or going. It is physically impossible to protect every craft on our water ways and be everywhere at once.
So before you judge the tax dollars at work. Think about me and others like me working 3 months strait 10 to 12 hours a day. Through Christmas and other holidays, attempting to show our power and be a visual deterrent to protect you. Your Welcome.
PS those aren’t 50 calibers, they’re m240’s
I somehow doubt you were in the service during my college days, but I respect your sacrifice and dedication.
Anyway, thanks for the clarification. I appreciate the efforts of the USCG (my late mother-in-law was a veteran of that branch) but I have my doubts about the risks of suburban ferry runs in Puget Sound versus other more immediate threats, like tankers or uninspected containers.
And as noted here the M240 is a replacement for the venerable 50 cal and could be considered its modern equivalent. Again, thanks for the clarification.