I've been blogging about the Superferry for some time now, a boat that will take cars and small trucks -- and people, though that's less interesting -- around the islands on short hop, short duration trips. This means, you can rent a car on Oahu, boat it over to Molokai, keep the car seats in place, skip the airport, etc, etc. It's a nifty concept. Environmentalists think that the Superferries (there will ultimately be two, I believe) are all wet and will cause traffic and harbor congestion -- and possibly take out unsuspecting humpback whales. I'm going to book a passage on the first ferry shortly after it gets up and running and will give you a report. Test voyages around the islands are due to start shortly. But there are already some problems cropping up.

Such as the previously unannounced 30% fuel surcharge on passage for cars, trucks and people (hat tip to Doug White for first pointing this out). This jacks the price up of passage so much that you'd have to stay for a long time on the outer islands to beat the price of renting a car and flying on one of the cheap interisland flights. The boat's spindoctors have already started claiming passengers will want to take the boat "for the experience regardless of the price." Hmmm. Considering that the interisland fare war shows no signs of abating, this means Superferry is in for some very tough competition.

—Alex, 07/06/07