The Port of Kingston has taken the plunge into the passenger-only ferry business. On Wednesday night, port commissioners Pete DeBoer and Tom Coultas agreed to purchase the 72-foot, 149-seat ferry Spirit from Four Seasons Marine Service of Silverdale.

The aptly named ferry will, provided the deal closes next week, begin shuttling people back and forth from Kingston to Seattle for $14 round-trip as soon as soon as October. The trip should take about 40 minutes each way.

The port is using a $2.5 million Federal Transit Administration Grant — not a loan, so it will not have to be paid back.

The commissioners really did their homework on this one. They researched several other vessels before buying the Spirit, and DeBoer has been assessing interest in the passenger-only service via a list he’s compiled of people who are likely to use that service.

Passenger-only services are dangerous waters on which to tread as the previous attempt, the privately owned and operated Aqua Express fell flat in January 2005.

The commissioners took note of the failure and the reasons for it — high operations costs and low passenger numbers — and will try to learn from the mistakes of its predecessor.

This service is a necessary one for a commuter community like Kingston. In this case, it’s $2.5 million well spent.

Let’s just hope it stays afloat.