Alaska Ferry Under Way Again

Fri., Dec. 5, 1997

Associated Press

Kathy and David Spokely have been waiting since October to get out of Ketchikan, Alaska.

She needs eye surgery in Washington state, and he wants to visit family in Canada, but they’ve been putting off the trip while waiting for Alaska to resume ferry service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

“Our ferry system is like our road off the island,” David Spokely said.

The Spokelys were among 95 people who rode the Alaska ferry Aurora from Ketchikan to Prince Rupert on Thursday morning. It’s the first trip by an Alaska state ferry to the Canadian port since July, when hundreds of Canadian fishermen blockaded the ferry Malaspina here in angry protest of Alaska fishing practices.

Thursday’s sailing was uneventful. The only vessels on the water as the Aurora sailed into town were a private boat offering radio greetings and a Canadian Coast Guard cutter that escorted the ferry on the last leg of its trip, spouting water from a fire cannon.

Two dozen Prince Rupert residents also were on hand to welcome the Aurora, including businessman Lee Bodie, who greeted the ferry with large lettering in the window of his Shell gas station.

“Our sales, as soon as the ferry dropped, we’ve lost over $100,000 a month,” he said.

Jim Robertson, owner of a Prince Rupert charter fishing business, helped hold a sign celebrating the Aurora’s arrival. Charter business was down considerably at the end of last summer, he said.

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