A video posted by West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) on Jan 7, 2016 at 6:10am PST

The M/V Doc Maynard is ending its first West Seattle-to-Downtown Seattle passenger run right about now; our Instagram clip above shows its first WS arrival, our YouTube clip below, its first departure:

TV lights shone on the first passengers to board; we were on Seacrest Pier watching as they admired the big new boat, delivered and dedicated in last September – since then, it’s spent some time filling in for its twin boat on the Vashon run, M/V Sally Fox, and awaited dock improvements at Seacrest, which were finished last month, enabling the crew to train for today and beyond. It can hold 278 passengers, more than twice its predecessor, the Spirit of Kingston, which is now the KCWT’s backup boat. And there’s rack space for 26 bicycles. KC Department of Transportation’s Marine Division director Paul Brodeur talked up other key points while the DM was boarding:

The half-million-passenger ridership milestone he mentioned was celebrated last month.