You may have thought that was the case all along, but you found out in two incidents Dec. 14 and Feb. 7 that captains would return a boat to a dock to let off a worker whose shift had ended. Now the fleet has a written policy saying captains are not to do that.
Captains are to keep the boats running on schedule and return only if there is an emergency.
And, by the way, a crew member who fails to leave the boat after his shift is over does not qualify as an emergency. It's unfortunate this wasn't made clear enough before. Even Inlandboatmen's Union President David Freiboth believed that a skipper wouldn't turn the boat around for an employee who forgot to get off. If you screw up and don't get off, you're going for a ride. Now that the policy is clear, you should be able to breathe a sigh of relief for knowing that your ferry trip won't take any longer than the schedule says it should.