The state’s largest ferry, the 418-foot-long Columbia, will miss at least two round-trip voyages between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska, due to a damaged bow-thruster engine exhaust system, canceling—or at least changing—the plans of hundreds of travelers, many with cars, trucks or recreational vehicles.
Smoke from a backed-up exhaust system prompted evacuation of the ship soon after it docked at Bellingham on June 29. Alaska Marine Highway System management canceled the Columbia’s weekly run north…