Wrangell will go without ferry service for 18 days late fall

The Alaska Marine Highway System last week announced its fall and winter schedule, showing Wrangell without any ferry service between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15.

That’s a change from the draft schedule released in early July which proposed regular weekly northbound service but no southbound ferry stops in alternate weeks from Oct. 1 to mid-November.

Ferry schedules in recent years have been constricted by a dwindling fleet of operable vessels and crew shortages.

Despite a concerted push to hire more crew, the limitations continue.

Though the ferry schedule covers Oct. 1 to April 30, the Alaska Marine Highway System “can only accept reservations for the ferry Kennicott through February 2024,” the state announced Aug. 16. “This limitation will stay in place until an adequate number of licensed crew members are available.”

Wrangell will continue with weekly northbound and southbound service from the Columbia through Nov. 27, when the ship will go into winter overhaul. The Kennicott will come out of reserve to take over for the Columbia but not until mid-December, leaving Wrangell and the rest of Southeast without a connection for almost three weeks to Bellingham, Washington.

The Columbia is scheduled to come back to work in March 2024.

Although the draft fall and winter schedule had proposed restoring runs between Southeast and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, from mid-November through February, that service was dropped from the final schedule. The system has not stopped at Prince Rupert – long a mainstay of Alaska ferry travelers — since 2019, except for a brief period last summer.

While some communities will see less service than during the summer, Pelican will go without any scheduled ferries December through April.

Aside from fall and winter schedule cutbacks, the Marine Highway System is always dependent on mechanical issues, such as last weekend when the Hubbard was pulled from service after its generators began shutting down intermittently on Aug. 16.

There was no service between Juneau, Haines and Skagway until repairs were made dockside in Juneau and the ship went back to work on Sunday, Aug. 20.