About eight or nine people — and a rather higher number of frozen turkeys and containers packed with food — departed on a special catamaran voyage between Juneau and Kake on Tuesday morning after a mishap at a state ferry dock in the village on Saturday left nearly three dozen people and their vehicles stranded in Juneau.
Officials were hoping to repair a mooring cable on the Alaska Marine Highway dock in Kake in time to allow the Hubbard ferry to travel there on Wednesday so the stranded people could celebrate Thanksgiving at home. But that wasn’t possible, so the state hired an Allen Marine Tours tour boat that departed Juneau at about 7 a.m. and was scheduled to complete a round trip by Tuesday evening.
[Break in Kake’s ferry dock mooring fouls Thanksgiving plans for dozens of people stranded in Juneau]
Aboard the catamaran were organizers of two community holiday celebrations in Kake — one canceled during the past weekend that is expected to be rescheduled, the other scheduled for a coming weekend. Some other stranded Kake residents chose to remain with their vehicles in Juneau.
Joey Chang, the pastor at Kake Memorial Presbyterian Church, said he decided to return on the catamaran with three members of his family because they didn’t want to wait until Saturday for the ferry and paying nearly $1,000 to fly home was too expensive. He said they left their vehicle and a lot of dry food items behind, but brought plenty of other items.
“We took three coolers and about, I believe, eight totes,” he said. The boat was expected to reach Kake by midday Tuesday and “it’s going to be a little late to thaw the turkey, but we’ll try so we can be ready for the Thursday Thanksgiving.”
Beyond his family’s celebration, Chang said he and other residents will figure out other plans once the people on the boat — and perhaps those still waiting to catch Saturday’s ferry — are home.
“We’ll discuss what we’re going do together as a community to celebrate Thanksgiving,” he said. “It could be Sunday. It depends on how we can kind of come back from this kind of hassle. Everybody’s tired.”
Also on the boat were 13 turkeys intended for the community fundraising feast hosted by The Salvation Army Kake Corps, Chang said. That event, currently scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 7, typically serves 100 to 150 people.
The mishap occurred when Hubbard ferry completed its trip from Juneau to Kake on Saturday, but was blown away from the dock by high winds that caused the mooring line to snap. The ship was forced to return to Juneau with the vehicles and many passengers still aboard, with several local organizations offering storage of frozen food and other help to the people stranded.
The breakage also meant participants in a volleyball tournament in Kake were unable to board the ship to return to their hometowns elsewhere in Southeast Alaska. The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities paid for flights to transport those people home.
Repairs to the Kake dock are expected to be complete in time for the ferry to travel there Saturday, according to Danielle Tessen, a DOT spokesperson.
“Currently we are transporting the mooring wires from Juneau to Kake, and changing out the wires before the next scheduled trip for the Hubbard,” she wrote in a text message Tuesday morning.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
