Reduced ferry service in October, November

The Alaska Marine Highway System fall/winter schedule is online and open for reservations, but don’t look for too many sailings into Wrangell in October and November. A state ferry will pull into town just six times over the two months.

But it will be more service than the community received last year.

The Kennicott will make two northbound and two southbound stops in Wrangell in October, and just two southbound stops — nothing northbound — during November.

The Matanuska, which usually calls on Wrangell once a week in each direction, will be out of service for winter overhaul during those two months. The ferry system is using the Kennicott to cover Southeast, while also serving Prince William Sound and Kodiak, cutting into its time for Southeast port calls.

By the second week of December, the schedule shows Wrangell back to its usual Matanuska stops, northbound on Fridays and southbound on Mondays every week.

The community will get a bonus December through April, when the Matanuska, one week a month, will skip its long run to Bellingham, Washington, going only as far south as Ketchikan and spending more time in Southeast. During that week each month, Wrangell will see the Matanuska twice in each direction.

Last winter, Wrangell received one northbound ferry stop in all of November 2020, and none in December, with just one southbound stop in January this year.

The state last week released the schedule for Oct. 1 to April 30, opening the sailings for reservations.

Budget cuts that have led to pulling ships out of service to save money and maintenance issues with the older vessels have cut deeply into the ferry schedule in recent years.

No ferry service is scheduled into Kodiak between Jan. 3 and March 17. Pelican will go without service for all of January and February.

Both the LeConte and the Kennicott will be in winter overhaul in January and February, leading to the even lower level of service systemwide during those months.

Continued reductions in the fall/winter ferry schedule are making it harder — and more expensive — on school activities, said Bob Davis, assistant principal at the high school and middle school.

Without a workable ferry schedule, the other travel options are a charter boat or flying for basketball, volleyball, cross country and wrestling teams.