Last week, some Haines residents learned from Facebook that ferry service would increase from one sailing a week to three with the addition of the Tazlina.
“As of this morning, it has been determined that they are going to pull the M/V Tazlina out of lay-up status, and resume regular runs back and forth from Juneau to Haines on (November) 21st,” Kevin Nye, a junior engineer at Alaska Marine Highway System wrote on a popular Facebook group for town happenings, Haines Chatters.
At a public meeting Thursday, Mayor Jan Hill twice left the room to take calls and she and others scrambled to verify the rumor.
The next day, AMHS confirmed the news in a press release.
The Tazlina was originally slated for installation of new forward side doors this winter, but will now sail until Jan. 5, according to the statement. “We are continuing to evaluate options for service after January 5, 2020, recognizing we’re not yet halfway through the fiscal year,” AMHS spokesperson Sam Dapcevich said. He added that the door replacement is not scheduled, but will now be delayed past March.
The additional vessel will fill some of the gaps made earlier this month, when service to Haines dropped to one ferry per week on the Matanuska. Regular maintenance for the 45-year-old LeConte (scheduled from Nov. 14 through Jan. 20) came in $2.8 million over budget, which left the state to compare overhaul costs against the Aurora and move forward with the least expensive repair. The cost analysis is completed, and the decision will be announced shortly, Dapcevich said Wednesday.
On Nov. 12, lawmakers in Southeast put pressure on the state when they sent Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Alaska Department of Transportation commissioner John MacKinnon a letter calling the news an “existential crisis.”
The lawmakers, including Haines and Klukwan’s Sen. Jesse Kiehl, wrote that an excess of budgeted repair costs “is not a valid reason to hamstring these communities and the administration has the tools to solve the problem. There is funding available — $20 million was set aside in an earlier budget for just this type of situation.”
The Haines Borough and Haines Economic Development Committee sent similar letters, advocating for bringing the Tazlina online in place of the LeConte. Haines Chamber of Commerce joined the ranks of state chambers to lobby the state for a solution to keep AMHS alive.
Dapcevich said that AMHS “appreciated the support and encouragement (it) received from local Mayor and state representatives,” though the reinstatement of the Tazlina was one of the options the state began exploring immediately after the Aurora was pulled.
Last week, Haines residents and visitors got a taste of what’s to come with what Alaska Seaplanes manager Carl Ramseth called “a painful stretch of weather magnified by limited ferry service.”
For a week from Nov. 9-16, rain blurred views, winds reached 66 mph, and cloud cover hung low. In a single day, eight passenger flights were cancelled, Ramseth said.
Among those at the mercy of the winds were Karlie Spud and her boyfriend George Houghton-Bynum, who were stuck in Juneau for five days. On Friday, their 757 plane from Seattle to Juneau couldn’t land in fog, making them miss their Saturday ferry reservations. “When we landed in Juneau on Saturday, it was blowing so hard you could see whitecaps from about 10,00 feet or so,” Spud said.
The following several days of fog, snow, rain and clouds amounted to the “waiting room at Seaplanes growing and growing with Haines and Skagway passengers,” Spud said. Only a handful of morning flights made it from Juneau to Haines.
By Wednesday morning, Seaplanes attempted three simultaneous flights for Haines, but each turned around because of low visibility, Spud said.
Also at the airport was Jen Walsh, along with partner Chris Downer and their 2-year-old toddler trying to make it back to Haines from a trip down south.
After three nights in Juneau, and boarding two different planes that turned around before landing in Haines, Walsh called private pilot Drake Olson. Flights were getting out Wednesday morning, but because Seaplanes was so backlogged with passengers, Walsh said her whole family wouldn’t have been able to leave that day.
“My phone was ringing off the hook,” Olson said. He made seven roundtrips from Haines to Juneau to bring stranded passengers where they needed to go.
Even with two extra sailing days on the Tazlina, Haines residents say they can’t rely on the Tazlina to accommodate roundtrip travel.
“Because they grouped all of the days together, it wouldn’t have mattered for me getting back,” Walsh said. The Tazlina will sail from Haines to Juneau on Friday afternoon, and return Monday around noon. On Saturday, the Matanuska will sail from Juneau to Haines and back. There are additional sailings around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The Haines Post office has been backed up by as many as six days so far due to inconsistent flights and lack of ferries, employee Greg Podsiki said. “In the past, the ferries were an alternative to bad weather,” he said. “The mail would go on the ferries if it was backed up for a few days.”
The new schedule is better than the last, Podsiki said, but it still means in bad weather, mail can be backed up for four days.