Went sailing on Puget Sound (or the Whulge) yesterday, from Edmonds to Kingston. Beautiful day for it, though my youngest Able Seaman succumbed to seasickness and chundered on the coaming . . . .
Interesting to see that the Edmonds to Kingston ferry has a Coast Guard escort — two extremely fast patrol boats with 50 calibre machine guns fore and aft — while the return trip is unprotected. 
As the master and commander of our vessel pointed out, if one were wanted to target a passenger-carrying ship and saw both (since they pass each other on their runs) would you choose the one with 2 zippy little escorts or the other one?
[composed and posted with ecto]