Ferry to Wrangell

Leslie Wednesday, June 4, 2008

This morning we met the ferry boat Matanuska for the 6 hour trip to Wrangell. The ferry left Ketchikan at 9:15 am and arrived in Wrangell a little after 3:00 pm. This ferry was continuing up the coast and would eventually arrive at Juneau in the middle of the night. While coming from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan we were the first to board, today we were the last to board. I guess being so large has its pros and cons. We were the last to board because they placed us directly across the bow of the ship. We had two advantages today — we didn’t have to back onto the ship (which we saw someone with a 54 ft truck/long travel trailer combination do) and because we were placed across the bow of the ship, we were the first to off-load.

The chute to drive onto the ship is long and narrow.

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The Alaska Marine Highway ferries are nothing like cruise ships. They are working transportation boats. They do have a variety of places to sit. There is the observation lounge, which looked a lot like the one on the last ferry, a lounge chair section, a cafeteria, bar, sheltered outdoor solarium, and the aft deck. There are cabins but I haven’t seen them yet. There are also public showers aboard. They appeared clean and servicable.
The lounge chair section is far more humane than any airplane. See the wide aisles and small table between chairs. Many people had sleeping bags on the floor in the spaces between chairs. There is so much free space that someone even brought an inflatable areo-bed and placed it at the front of the cabin.

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Outside at the rear of the boat is the sheltered solarium. Notice the yellow tint to the picture. That is caused by the tinted overhead skylights. You can also see the heaters at the ceiling level. Many people stake claim to the reclining chairs in the solarium for sleeping. Because the heaters give off so much heat and you are sheltered from the wind by the hell of the boat and the plexiglass sidewalls, I think this would be the best place to ride. We’ll try the solarium on our next leg. I noticed one person had his inflatable camping sleeping mat on the chair – that looks like a good idea. Notice the areo-bed at the rear of the solarium and the rows of lockers.

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Lastly, you can pitch a tent on the aft deck. While there is no place to stake the tent, most people tape the tent down with duct tape. This is reported as a wonderful way to travel.

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The lounge section also acted as the viewing room for the movie. The movie on this run was a video of a Native American ceremony. (I felt as if I was back at summer camp with Indian lore.)

There were lots of kids aboard this leg. A group of Native American dancers was traveling to an event in Juneau. One of the workers giving directions in loading the rig told us that if we wanted to avoid the noisy kids we should sit in the bar because access is restricted to people over age 21. We stayed in the lounge section but the bar was large and included couches and separate tables.

Here’s a picture of the chute to exit the ferry at Wrangell. You can see the vehicles lined up to board this ferry. Because they work very hard to ensure that all available vehicle space on a ferry is utilized, they may require drivers to off-load their vehicles at intermediate ports and re-load.

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We are staying in the only commercial campground in Wrangell. It has all of 7 spaces (and one space is occupied by the manager). Getting into this site was very difficult. Robert had to back up a steep incline and make a blind turn into the site. I was outside giving him instructions via the two-way radio – in the pouring rain. While Gore-tex does work at repelling rain, there is only so much it can do when sheets of rain are falling. We spent the rest of the day inside warming up.

more later,

Leslie