PORTLAND, Ore. — You would think with sunny and warm weather, along the river would be booming. But that hasn’t been the case for Willamette Jetboat Excursions.
This is the time of year when the company is usually packed with people going up and down the river; this year they’re running at half capacity.
General manager Andy Moss said this year is worst than his first year in business, which was more than 20 years ago. He knows having a weather-dependent job can be unpredictable. But he never thought he’d be where he is right now, because of a pandemic.
“I didn’t think it would be this bad," Moss said. "I knew it would be a bad year, but I thought we would do a third to a half of what we do. We’re about 10% of normal, which is a lot lower than I thought.”
Moss said he and and his employees are doing all they can keep business going. He said they’re enforcing social distancing on the boats and making sure everyone is wearing masks. He said because they can only carry about half the capacity that this summer has been a challenge. Instead of 50 passengers per trip, he’s taking about half as many out.
Even with limited passengers on the boats, Moss said he’s still getting customers coming in. His employees make sure everything is wiped down before and after passengers come on the boats. For now he said he plans on keeping boats filled as much as possible and he looks to what will hopefully be better times ahead.
Moss said he typically runs tours along the river until the end of September. But because of how tough this summer has been, he’s thinking about reducing hours to only weekends starting after Labor Day weekend.