Continuation of So you want to be a travel book writer

How do you keep your books up to date?

I retired with a lifetime pass on the ferries so I go up annually and take pictures in whichever towns I need new pictures the most, usually hit about six or seven of them in a trip, just ride the ferries around. Last time we were up, I made a point of riding on one of the new ferries, the Kennicott, which has quite a different layout from the other ferries and I needed to be able to explain that to the readers. What’s different about the Kennicott is that they got federal funds that covered using it for an emergency base for oil spill cleanups and earthquakes. It’s got stabilizers and such that the other ferries don’t have like a floating dock on the car deck that can be deployed aft to tie up fishing boats that are working on a spill cleanup. It’s got a heliport up on the rear, on the stern, which blocks a lot of the view from the solarium and gives it the aesthetic lines of a fish processor. And because it’s got to take heavy water going out to Kodiak and the Aleutians in the winter, it has a lot less open deck space but it also has some little roomettes that go for very cheap for people who want to ride all the way up from Bellingham to Seward or Valdez, where it goes once a month. But people need to know they’re not getting a full stateroom when they book one of those.

Alaska Marine Highway Ferry Schedule Changes For Summer 2001

(excerpted from Alaska’s Inside Passage Traveler, by Ellen Searby)

Reservations are acted upon starting December 1, 2000.

Fares will increase slightly after holding for several years. The changes have not yet been finally approved as we write this, Nov. 1.

Bellingham, WA: The Columbia will sail north on Fridays, and (a change!) the Matanuska will sail north on Tuesdays. Both will go all the way to Skagway, with the Columbia stopping in Sitka southbound and the Matanuska stopping northbound. The Columbia is being refurbished and will have more 2-berth staterooms than before. With 2 ships sailing out of Bellingham, staterooms and vehicle space should be much easier to reserve than in other summers.

Prince Rupert: will have service 5 days a week in summer, though the Tuesday sailing of the LeConte will go only as far north as Ketchikan. The Taku will sail north on Sunday and Wednesday. The Sunday sailing will stop in Sitka, northbound on Monday and will turn around at Juneau, stopping again at Sitka southbound. The Wednesday sailing will go all the way to Haines and Skagway. The Kennicott will sail from Prince Rupert north on Monday and Friday, stopping in Sitka northbound on the Monday sailing, with monthly trips to Valdez and Seward.

Juneau: The Malaspina will sail daily from Juneau to Haines and Skagway and back, May 24-September 9. Note that this run is a popular day or several-day trip from Juneau. The car deck is often full between Haines and Skagway.

Smaller ferries: The Aurora and LeConte will exchange positions from previous years, with the Aurora sailing out of Juneau and the LeConte sailing out of Ketchikan.

Stewart-Hyder will not have ferry service in summer, perhaps permanently.

Stopovers: we still maintain that the best way to see the Inside Passage from the ferries is to stop over for 1 or more days in your choice of ports so you can explore these towns and the areas around them in daylight: Your ticket will be divided into segments as you choose. Later changes are much easier to make if you are walking on without vehicle or staterooms. If you travel with a vehicle, you really must plan your segments ahead of time so your vehicle is parked on the car deck according to the port where you will get off next.

For current info and to make reservations, call 800-642-0066. The website has schedule changes, any promotional fares, and lots of other info, http://www.state.ak.us/ferry Note that this web address is simplified from earlier ones.

We hope you have lots of sun on your trip!

To order Alaska’s Inside Passage Traveler:

Windham Bay Press

Box 1198

Occidental, CA 95465

707-823-7150

Describe a typical trip on the Alaskan Marine Highway from Bellingham, which is just north of Seattle.

Well, from Bellingham it’s nonstop to Ketchikan. So you’re going to leave Bellingham on a Friday night and get to Ketchikan on a Sunday morning. And depending on your interest, you’d pick the towns you want to get off. Ketchikan has totem parks north and south of town. It’s the jumping off place if you have an RV and you want to do some driving. Ketchikan is on an island but there’s a shuttle ferry several times a day over to Prince of Wales Island where there are miles of gravel roads and you can do a lot of freshwater and saltwater fishing. You could launch a kayak and go sheltered water paddling. There’s a lot you could do over there. Or you could ride the ferry on. The ferry’s going to stop in Ketchikan for a couple of hours and then the next stop is Wrangell, five and a half hours north. Wrangell has the only regulation golf course in southeast Alaska.

What’s it cost to ride the Alaska ferry?

Bellingham to Skagway nonstop was $262 last year without room or meals. The fares this year, incidentally, are going to go up five to ten percent but we don’t know exactly how much yet. There’s a heated enclosed solarium open to the rear on all the ships and showers are free. You can also get a stateroom. If you want stateroom, you want to reserve well ahead of time. I mean they’re going to start taking reservations December 4 for next summer. And you might want a stateroom if you’re starting out of Bellingham, because you’ve got two nights on the ferry, Friday night and Saturday night. If you do a lot of stopping over, a lot of the other legs are so short that you don’t need a stateroom. They’re not big and plushy, they’re two-bunk rooms, there’s an upper and lower with a ladder. Otherwise you make do in your seat. If you bring a vehicle, it gets a lot spendier in a hurry, especially if you bring a long vehicle. It’s best to bring the smallest vehicle you can.

One of the suggestions I make in the book is that if you only have a week or two you’d do well to airline to Ketchikan or Juneau and then ride the ferries around and stop where you please and fly back from Ketchikan or Juneau. The ride from Bellingham is pretty and there are a lot of waterfalls but there aren’t any glaciers.