Later this month, a new Writer-in-Residence for the Interisland ferry will be named. Since my term ended in August, I’ve begun to comb through journals, review my notes, and revise essays I drafted. Here’s a preliminary tally of my year of riding and writing on the MV Tillikum once or twice a week:
- 18 blog posts, August 2, 2018 – August 29, 2019, at http://www.writinghteinterisland.org
- 30 journal entries
- 1 essay published in an anthology (“Salish Sea Account” in For Love of Orcas)
- rough drafts of 10 essays
- 0 whale sightings
- hundreds of sightings of other marine life
- writing with a dozen other writers aboard the ferry
- several naps
- met a mah-jong group
- 1 birthday celebration witnessed
- 1 stranding on San Juan Island when the Lopez dock froze
- participated in one fire drill
- took hundreds of photographs (see a few below)
- listened to 1 cello-playing freight truck driver
- dozens of interesting conversations with passengers and crew
- attendance at the Floating Ukelele Jam
- I lost track of how many people said, “That’s so cool!” when I explained what I was doing.
I’m looking forward to how the tally looks for the next Writer-in-Residence.
Writing the Interisland 
I was starting to feel like the only one who never sees whales on the ferry! Turns out: nope.
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