Winter ferry service has service gap in early December

Wrangell this year will go without state ferry service for almost three weeks in late November and early December under the fall and winter schedule released Aug. 2.

The service gap will occur between the time the Alaska Marine Highway System pulls the Kennicott out of service for major work and until it can transfer crew from the Kennicott to the Columbia, and outfit the Columbia, said Sam Dapcevich, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman.

The Columbia has been out service for repairs since last November.

Other than the three-week gap, Wrangell is scheduled to see a northbound ferry every Sunday afternoon, with a southbound voyage every Wednesday morning. The fall and winter schedule runs from Oct. 1 to April 30 and is now available for reservations on the Alaska Marine Highway System website.

The last November northbound sailing of the Kennicott through Wrangell will be Nov. 24, with the first Columbia northbound stop on Dec. 15.

The last southbound stop by the Kennicott will be Nov. 27, with the Columbia scheduled into Wrangell southbound on Dec. 18.

Petersburg, Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Haines and Skagway face a similar gap in service on the mainline run between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska, though the state ferry Hubbard will continue without a break between Juneau and Haines and Skagway.

It will be worse for the Prince William Sound communities of Cordova, Valdez and Whittier, which will receive no ferry service from mid-October to mid-December.

And even worse for the communities of Kodiak and Homer and Seldovia, which will be without ferry service January through April as the Tustumena is pulled from the run for overhaul work and repairs.

The three-week hole in the Southeast Alaska mainline schedule was not included in the draft fall and winter timetable released for public comment in June.

The 26-year-old Kennicott will be leaving Southeast Alaska at the end of November for a shipyard in Puget Sound for replacement of its generators to meet federal emissions standards.

The 51-year-old Columbia has been in the shop since last November. Excessive rust in the ship’s fire suppression system caused it to spend more time at the shipyard in Ketchikan for repairs.