People coming to Alaska often get on the state ferry at Bellingham, Wash., and float north to Haines, where they head up a road to the Alaska Highway. How long is the Bellingham-Haines trip?
The Alaska Marine Highway System's Matanuska leaves Bellingham on at 6 p.m. each Friday and arrives in Haines, a commonly used highway link into Interior and Southcentral Alaska, the following Monday afternoon.
Not all that time is spent at sea. The vessel motors along at 16.5 knots, the ferry system says, and makes intermediate stops in Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg and Juneau.
The longest route on the ferry system's schedule is the Tustumena's trip between Kodiak and Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, which has intermediate stops in such places as Chignik, Sand Point, Cold Bay and False Pass. The 85-hour route is undertaken in the warmer and calmer months, between April and October. The westward route leaves Kodiak Wednesday afternoon and arrives in Unalaska Sunday morning. After a few hours to load and unload, the boat returns to Kodiak. Kodiak and Unalaska are Western Alaska's biggest fishing ports.
The longest leg of any route is the 37 hours it takes to cover the 619 miles between Bellingham and Ketchikan. The Kennicott's summer run linking Juneau and Valdez takes 32 hours each way.
The shortest trip on the schedule is Haines to Skagway. That 1-hour trip of 14 miles is especially a bargain compared to the 350 road miles one would accumulate driving from Haines to Skagway.
