On Balboa’s Waters, Christmas Is a Workday -- a Pleasant One

Before Wess Urso’s daughter, his wife and her parents could crawl out of bed to unwrap their presents, he had already left his Brea home.

He had some Christmas deliveries of his own to make Sunday, and lots of them.

By dawn, Urso was at work in Newport Harbor preparing to take the helm on the Commodore, just one of the three car ferries that constitute the Balboa Island Ferry service.

At this time of year, the ferries operate from 6:30 a.m. to midnight -- even on Christmas, when customers wait their turn for the four-minute, 900-foot crossing from Balboa Peninsula to Balboa Island.

On each ferry, there is room for only three cars but plenty of space for pedestrians and cyclists. It costs $1.50 for a car and one passenger. Extra passengers and pedestrians pay 60 cents, and children ages 5 to 11 pay 30 cents.

Urso, the Commodore’s captain, remains true to his trade, no matter the holiday or the overcast conditions Christmas morning.

For him, “it wasn’t the traditional get-up-in-the-morning Christmas. But that was OK.”

“People go back and forth all the time, and they need us. Today, it’s nice being out on the water. People are bringing presents to relatives or just spending time together,” said Urso, 53, a retired U.S. Coast Guard medical corpsman. “Who could mind working like this in Southern California?”

Throughout the region, many people with jobs just as important as Urso’s also got up for the morning shift: waiters, police officers, nurses and others.

By the time Urso got to work at 7 a.m., Bill Bumpus, 59, a retired Los Angeles police detective, was piloting another of the ferries, the Admiral, from the peninsula to the island, checking the rudders to make each landing a smooth one.

“I’ve worked for so many Christmases it doesn’t even matter anymore,” Bumpus said. “I worked Christmas for 15 years for the LAPD before I got one off.”

And working the ferry is much easier and safer, he points out.

“I wasn’t going to ask someone to work for me. I like being outdoors, I like being on the ferry, and I like the people,” Bumpus said.

Britton Frisbie, 21, who once collected fares, now pilots boats.

“It can monotonous, but it’s as much fun as you make of it,” he said.

Riders were heading to St. John Vianney Chapel on Balboa Island or visiting relatives, or just planning to explore what the island offered.

The riders were grateful that the ferries were running on Christmas. “We are a little hung over, so we are letting the ocean wind blow the alcohol away,” said Martin Schwab, an Irvine resident.

Seymour Beek, who owns the ferry service, said 10 employees were scheduled to work Christmas shifts.

“There are far worse things to do on Christmas. I think it’s a cush job,” he said.

But on Christmas Day, “I’m not sure the employees always agree.”