Pensacola Bay Cruises' ferries heavily damaged during Hurricane Sally

Both of the National Park Service's ferries were significantly damaged as Hurricane Sally slammed into Pensacola.

The storm pushed the edges of both two boats onto the pavilion off of Commendencia Street, crashing through the surrounding railing.

A crew with HMS Ferries, the operator of Pensacola Bay Cruises, was out inspecting the damage Thursday morning. Joe Asebedo, general manager of HMS Ferries, declined to comment on the damage and referred questions to Gulf Islands National Seashore.

In a statement Thursday, Gulf Islands National Seashore Superintendent Dan Brown said information on the boats is "very limited."

"Marine salvagers are performing an on-site assessment, but may need to haul the boats to another location to fully assess underneath the boat hulls. We hope to have updated information later today," said Gulf Islands National Seashore Superintendent Dan Brown in a statement Thursday.

Members of the public were walking around the dock Thursday morning dodging yellow caution tape and taking cellphone videos. The 150-passenger boats also sustained broken windows and tether lines were roped around neighboring trees.

The two ferries, which are docked in downtown Pensacola, usually run from there to Pensacola Beach and then to Fort Pickens at Gulf Islands National Seashore.

The ferries have had a long history of bad luck since being purchased with $4 million in restitution funds from the 2010 BP oil spill and a $1.2 million federal grant. 

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The ferries' original operator, Gulf Coast Maritime Service Inc., declined to sign another contract, citing lower ridership and high operating costs after the 2018 season. Back then, the company's owner said he lost more than $300,000 in the less than six months.

Because of a government shutdown in 2019, Gulf Islands struggled to get a contract award so HMS Ferries didn't begin operations until mid-April.

Earlier this year, Asebedo said he hoped to double the 16,000 rides the company did in 2019. That was before being shutdown for roughly two months to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Once the ferries opened to the public again in May, they did so at half capacity and could only run from downtown to the beach at first. The ferries couldn't dock at Fort Pickens because of rehabilitation and restoration work on a building next door to the dock.

Escambia County Commissioner Robert Bender, who represents the beach, said Escambia County had hoped to better market this off season the ferries and other transportation options to the beach to help relieve beach traffic in the future.

Madison Arnold can be reached at marnold@pnj.com and 850-435-8522.