Thought some would find this of interest. Looks like Alger Willis will no longer be allowed to operate the fishing camps and ferry access anymore. Since this is basically where FDS got started thought it might be post worthy. This past November, two ferries (loaded w/car(s) and people) ran aground and got stuck. Steering cables had some damage, etc. and caused quite a delay. Coast Guard responded. Eventually all is well. But here’s the kicker. Since the Coast Guard responded, drug tests of both captains resulted as this was treated as a boating accident. I guess this is pretty much a standard thing for captain license and the Coast Guard. The AW ferry captains failed. Thus, NPS has terminated the contract for Alger Willis. Best estimate is sometime in May before someone else has been contracted to handle the southern Core Banks. For more info visit the Tradewinds site as there seems to be some posting going on over there. DrumWagon and the Alger Willis sites have some info as well. Very unfortunate to see this happen to the good folks with AW. Seems like a few bad apples have cost many people a great loss in this case. Not sure but I suspect the drug failure was result of pot as this can stay in your system up to a month or longer depending on frequency of use and pot’s quality. I’ll update if I find out anything else but seems like a done deal at this point! Also some info via the NPS Cape Lookout site. No real specifics as to the details though. Additional digging reveals that apparently this wasn’t the first time the failed drug test issue had come up regarding the captains and the ferry service. Wish I had known that when we were going over. Might made a new friend!!!
