These days, Prince of Wales Island is a really happenin’ place. We even have our very own ferry, with daily service to Ketchikan, which, in the local parlance, is our “hub.”

In the bad old days, the Alaska Marine Highway (AMH) would occasionally throw us a line, in the form of a weekly ferry in the winter, with a few extra runs thrown in for the summer season. These ferries arrived at times that fit between AMH’s other plans, which meant they often pulled up in Hollis, a 45-minute drive from our house, at 3:00 a.m. When my son, aka Elder Brother, was small, he would sleep, positively exuding clouds of glory, on the drive down, and then perk up once we got on board–at which point he would set about hurling himself down the nearest stairwell. During one of these contests, he famously asked me, “Mom, why do you always grab me?”

At the time of this contest, we were riding on the Aurora, but before that (we came to Prince of Wales in 1988) we had the infamous Chilkat. A former landing craft and crew boat, the Chilkat was, in terms of the trip from Hollis to Ketchikan, and under-powered weakling. She was known to actually lose ground when faced with the double threat of tide and wind, and would often hide out behind the nearest rock until a following sea became available. The locals called her “the chicken of the sea.”

Fast forward to 2000. Y2K did not materialize, and a group of enterprising locals formed the grassroots Inter Island Ferry Authority (IFA). They got the funding, commissioned the construction of the M/V Prince of Wales, who embarked upon her maiden voyage in January 2002. During the trip, shortly outside of Ketchikan, some passengers marveled at the quiet-ness of the engines, while at the same time others noticed with interest their nearness to the beach. It soon became evident that the engines had quit, and the crew was just barely able to get them fired up to avoid hitting the rocks.

Since that ignoble start, the IFA has carried on for lo, these twenty years, with only a few hitches, and the daily service, at reasonable hours, has become a priceless commodity. Even though, in my old age, I prefer to fly, you can’t get your car across the water on a float plane.

Thanks in part to an ill-fated attempt to expand with a northern route between Coffman Cove and Wrangell/Petersburg, and the construction of another boat for the purpose, the Prince of Wales has a sister ship, the M/V Stikine. When one is in dry dock, the other can step in. Sometimes, one of them will pinch hit for the AMH Ketchikan-Metlakatla run, causing only a minor adjustment to the regular schedule.  

These little boats provide an opportunity to take things slow for a change. The trip is three hours, and we always board about an hour ahead of time. There are decks for walking on, an observation lounge in front, a galley for breakfast or lunch, a reading lounge (which has great benches for sleeping if you can score one), neighbors and friends to catch up with, and a sight-seeing tour that I hope I never get used to.

Details to be had here: Inter-Island Ferry | Hollis and Ketchikan Ferry – Alaska (interislandferry.com)

And here, as to the ultimate fate of the Chilkat: Alaska’s first state ferry sinks in Washington windstorm (ktoo.org)