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Production Retreat

The mike ferry organization presents, 2024 production retreat.

San Diego, CA | January 17-19 | Manchester Grand Hyatt

• Description

We know that the majority of all people do think of (and in some cases, actually write out) New Year’s resolutions. What could you achieve if you had a plan in place to make 2024 your best year yet? It comes down to Mindset, Skills, Activities and Action.

The Real Estate landscape has evolved, presenting new challenges and opportunities. Within Mike Ferry's coveted 21-point Sales System, discover five actionable strategies for each point, all finely tuned to address the complexities of today's market. These aren't generic tips; they're precisely what you need to thrive in the current competitive environment.

- Build momentum for the new year - Equip agents with the vital sales skills - Strengthen mindset - Provide a step-by-step system for building a successful Real Estate business

This retreat is best suited for:

- Real estate agents seeking to boost their sales production. - Professionals aiming to achieve top-producer status. - Agents looking for actionable strategies to grow their business.

Attending the Production Retreat will provide you with:

In-depth knowledge and actionable strategies to supercharge your sales. Hands-on training and personalized feedback from Mike Ferry and other industry experts. Opportunity to network with high-performing agents and gain insights from their experiences. A renewed sense of motivation and inspiration to excel in your real estate career. The confidence and skills to overcome challenges and achieve your professional goals.

Register for Production Retreat

*Premier and One on One Clients be sure to login for your Coaching discount. Interested in becoming a Coaching client? CLICK HERE

Why Attend This Event?

• Learn along side the Global Leader in Real Estate Sales Training
• Network and build agent to agent relationships
• Get the actual SKILLS needed to be a top producer.
• Everything located in ONE area!

CALL US NOW

(800) 448-0647

Event Agenda

3 Days packed full of developing your skills as a Real Estate Agent! To prepare you as much as possible … below is a general daily agenda. More details to come as the date approaches.

Check In/Registration

Check in and Registration is located right outside the doors of the main ballroom on level one. Want to beat the lines on Day 1? Check in early! Early Check in opens up on January 16th at 4:00 PM and goes until 7:00 PM. Check in is required for each attendee to receive their wristbands for entry, workbooks and other materials needed to have the best 3 days!

7:00 AM until 11:00 AM – Registration

7:00 AM – 4:30 PM Customer service and MFO Store Open

8:30 AM – 9:00 AM Doors Open

9:00 AM – 10:15 AM General Session

10:15 AM – 10:45 AM Break

10:45 AM – 12:00 PM General Session

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM Lunch Break

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM General Session

2:30 PM – 3:00 PM Afternoon Break

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM General Session

*Schedule is subject to change at any given time. For general reference only

Testimonials

Hi, I’m Agent D.K. from Canada. There is no better way to start your year off than at the Production Retreat. I never miss it. You’re masterminding with professionals from all over North America. There is no better way to get fired up for the New Year. It’s the best way to get into beast mode so that you can really get into the new year and attack. I’m telling you, every time I go, I come back and I’m fired up and ready to crush my goals.

Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos Premier Client - The DK Team

My name is Morris Lucas. I’m from Indianapolis, Indiana. I’ve been in Mike Ferry Coaching for several years. I keep coming back to the Retreats and all of the Mike Ferry events because my business continues to grow. I see results and meet like minded people that I can share and practice with as my business grows. I had no plan before Mike Ferry and now I have one to follow … a definite blueprint

Morris Luca Premier Client - eXp Realty

Hi, this is Nicole Lavigne from the Las Vegas market. People always ask me “why” after ten years do I keep coming to the Production Retreat? And the answer is there are 21 points to The Mike Ferry system. And depending where I’m at in my business, I have so much to learn and I hear everything so differently depending on what’s going on. So I strongly encourage you, no matter how many times you’ve been or if you’re a first timer, go, because you will get so much learning, knowledge and networking for your business.

Nichole Lavigne Premier Client - eXp Realty

I am Brett Matsuura and the reason why I come to Mike Ferry events, I typically come twice a year is because I’m like a battery. My battery starts running out and coming to one of these events every six months or so is like a recharge back up to full capacity. So that’s why I come to the Mike Ferry events.

Brett Matsuura Elite Partner - Century 21

Where to stay

Book your room through our reservation link and get the best possible rate at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. Click the link below to book!

$299.00 Run of House Room

Daily Resort fee: $35.00 a night.

Room rates available until December 25, 2023

Call In #: (619) 232-1234

Group Code: G-MFLV

Parking Information available on hotel website

*Room rates are subject upon availability

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Moscow's High Rise Bohemia: The International Business District With No Business

• Written by Dario Goodwin
• Published on March 17, 2015

The Moscow International Business Center (Also known as Moskva-City ) was meant to be Russia ’s ticket into the Western world. First conceived in 1992, the district at the edge of Moscow’s city center is intended to contain up to 300,000 inhabitants, employees and visitors at any given moment and, when completed, will house over 4 million square meters of prime retail, hotel and office space to create what the Russian government desired most from this project: an enormous financial district that could dwarf London’s Canary Wharf and challenge Manhattan . Twenty three years later though, Moscow-based real estate company Blackwood estimates that as much as 45% of this new space is entirely vacant and rents have plummeted far below the average for the rest of Moscow. The only press Moskva-City is attracting is for tenants like the High Level Hostel , a hostel catering to backpackers and other asset-poor tourists on the 43rd floor of the Imperia Tower , with prices starting at $25.50 for a bed in a six-person room. This is not the glittering world of western high finance that was envisioned back in the post-Soviet 90s; but what has it become instead?

As one might expect from a project of this sheer ambition, Moskva-City has a troubled past. The economic crash in 2008 hit Russia hard enough to evict the previous Mayor of Moscow , Yuri Luzhkov, who had been a cheerleader for the district, and replace him with the considerably more austere Sergei Sobyanin, who famously declared that the whole idea was an “urban planning mistake.” But as recently as 2013, the Wall Street Journal was triumphantly claiming that Moskva-City had risen from the dead, citing 80% occupancy rates and glowing quotes from industry insiders claiming that Moskva-City was the "place to be." Driven by record highs in oil prices, Moscow looked poised to become the next Dubai .

Instead, Moscow is now in the grip of an economic winter prompted by western sanctions and drops in the price of oil. The large financial groupings that Moskva-City was meant to shelter have been warned off by their inability to issue credit to international markets, for example - but Moskva-City isn’t just an Empire State Building left empty by the Great Depression.

A fundamental problem that is holding Moskva back compared to the rest of Moscow is the simple fact that currently, getting to Moskva-City is nigh-on impossible at peak hours. Moscow has long been plagued with transport problems, ever since the government failed to match the dramatic expansion of the city with a dramatic expansion of the transport system after the Second World War. Despite being only 2.5 miles from the Kremlin , Moskva-City is only just inside the ring road that bounds the city center and which acts as the only real transport link to it (and as a result, is clogged by construction vehicles.) A railway and metro hub has been finished, but so far only runs a one-stop shuttle service to the closest Metro station that is actually integrated with the rest of Moscow Metro. The isolation of the outer districts is a large, negative part of the Moscow psyche, and it’s not surprising that this is driving away the globetrotting financial elite this project was meant to attract.

The project is managed by architectural practice No.6, which is a constituent part of the large Moscow based practice Mosproject-2 , which is itself a public corporation headed up by Mikhail Vasilyevich Posokhin, who is apparently the “People’s Architect of Russia.” Despite all this state involvement, the project has still managed to become bogged down in bureaucratic infighting - each lot is managed and developed individually, which has led to developers competing for occupants by slashing rates.

Much has been written about the way modern financial districts and towers that inhabit them can be unwelcoming, forbidding or even hostile by design, but the skyscrapers of Moskva-City seem even less friendly than usual. The site - a former stone quarry, chosen out of necessity as the only place in the city center where a new district could be plausibly constructed - is isolated both physically and visually, leaving the cluster a stark anomaly on the city skyline. Even the names seem more imposing than optimistic now: Imperia, City of Capitals , Steel Peak.

The Mercury City Tower , so far the tallest completed building on the site, is officially “a strong reference to Russian constructivism, [which] gives the tower a strong vertical thrust similar to the one found in New York's Chrysler building .” It would be easy to criticize the Mercury City Tower for picking ‘inspirations’ that are so totally opposed to each other - The Chrysler building the defining emblem of American pre-crash confidence and Constructivism created with the express purpose (especially architecturally) of extending the Bolshevik revolution into a social revolution - but the way they smash those two inspirations together is almost beautifully ironic.

Even though the High Level Hostel is less an asset to a financial district than it is a PR problem, it’s been a huge success since opening in September, already ranked 27th out of 766 hostels in Moscow by TripAdvisor. According to the management agency for Moskva-City , 58% of the new occupant signings this year have been non-financial, including a number of small to medium size businesses. Other areas of office space have been occupied by a restaurant and a culinary school, while another space has been redeveloped into a 6,000 seat theater.

While Moskva-City is failing to be a financial district that could take on the world, it’s inadvertently becoming a humanized space catering to the very groups that the Russian economic miracle left behind. Taking advantage of rents lower than the rest of Moscow , the world class facilities and the sheer desperation of the developers, the humanization of Moskva-City could well create the world’s first high-rise bohemia.

Of course, these are not spaces designed for a community, or even for people: these are spaces designed for money, and there’s little scope for changing something that seems so baked into the design of Moskva-City . The High Level Hostel is trading off of the irony of being a hostel in a banking tower, but it’s perfectly possible that at some point people will no longer find this joke funny (especially in a building that seems hostile to the very idea of humor). The isolation of Moskva, even though it allowed this community to spring up in the first place, is just as detrimental to a humanized district as it is to a financial one: even bohemians need to move around the city, or the district risks becoming a black-spot instead of a hot-spot.

Moskva-City’s isolation won’t last forever. The end of construction will open the roads up to traffic, and plans to properly integrate the spur lines of the Metro in this area into the wider system are well under way. The integration of the district will inevitably push up rents, and the Russian economy will eventually boom once again. When that happens, Moskva-City is prime territory to be reconquered by the giants of international finance, and it seems unlikely that the municipal or national governments would want to step in to protect this accidental district. For now, though, the towers capture perfectly this moment of Russia ’s schizophrenic understanding of its place in the world.

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Zemelny Office Building in Moscow by UNK architects

UNK architects : The most northern building with a green facade in the world.   The  Zemelny  business center is located close to the Moscow subway station named  Ulitsa 1905 Goda . The building is surrounded by XX-century industrial architecture, three kilometers away from the Moscow City business district.  Zemelny   has become a ‘green’ alternative to it.

The tower with a total area of 39000 m2 stands on a three-floor stylobate. Its facade is wrapped in a fishnet-like diagonal metal shell. As a precedent for the elevation, the UNK team used hyperboloid structures designed by Russian engineer Vladimir Shukhov, the author of the Shukhov Radio Tower in Moscow .

The new office building will become an ideal place for those who value the functionality of the workspace and its harmony with the surrounding nature. 

UNK architects wanted the building to remind of a private house that is though located within the city boundaries. Its architecture features a lot of glass framed by the delicate snow-white metal outline. There is Virginia creeper (flowering vine in the grape family) planted on the balconies. Every season it will transform the tower's visual comprehension: paint the facade with bright green in summer, add a red splash to it in autumn and fully expose it in winter after the leaf fall. The external metal lace shell has an uneven rhythm thus imposing the effect of an ‘artificial perspective’. It visually thinns the building and makes it more elegant. 

The main volume of the building has the shape of an isosceles triangle. Elevator lobbies and egress stairs are located in its central part. Every floor is divided into six independent spatial blocks. The site is fenced and has an individual recreation area. The underground level accommodates a parking lot with 370 spaces and is equipped with charging units for electric cars.

The triangle plan helps to achieve a very high building area efficiency factor. The major challenge during the construction was to erect a building that occupies most of the site. To solve it our team used the top-down construction method, where underground levels grow down from the street level. 

Zemelny is located on a three-story stylobate that accommodates infrastructure, event halls, a café, and multiple shops – all those can be used both by the offices’ tenants and residents. Through the use of vertical planting, the building provides another green area to the citizens. Zemelny's infrastructure is public and available to everyone which turns it into a new point of attraction of the district.

In the evening   Zemelny  is decorated with light that is being poured along hyperploid structures featuring the lacy external envelope. 

Over time the Virginia creeper vines that are planted in tubs behind the transparent facade structures will make their way around the building's envelope and become an additional source of oxygen for the city. The unique architecture of the building stimulates new development for this industrial area and provides additional objects of urban infrastructure for the residents.

By Naser Nader Ibrahim

• Office Building
• Commercial Architecture
• Zemelny Office Building
• Zemel'nyi Business-Center
• UNK architects
• Dmitry Chebanenko
• Yuliy Borisov
• UNK Architects
• Zemelny Business Cente

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Sea change: Alaska’s marine highway navigates an uncertain future

Special report: federal funding has brought hope to the state’s ferries. but years of financial troubles, political fights and worker shortages complicate the system’s recovery..

A spotlight of the state ferry Kennicott assists the crew as it approaches Wrangell late February 23, 2024. (Marc Lester / ADN)

First of two parts

KETCHIKAN — Minutes after the M/V Kennicott pulled away from its terminal in the Tongass Narrows on a late February journey up the Inside Passage, emergency lights flickered on, barely visible under a bright winter sun. Seasoned travelers on the Alaska marine highway exchanged wary looks as the ferry slowed.

Disruptions are increasingly common on Alaska’s aging fleet of ferries. Six decades after the Alaska Marine Highway System launched its first vessels and became a vital transportation link, it’s beset by worker shortages, financial troubles, political fights and an uncertain future. Today, it operates just six ferries, down from its high of 11 a decade ago. Ridership has fallen off steeply.

At its peak, the state’s publicly owned ferries carried upward of 400,000 Alaskans and visitors each year. Many in coastal communities in Southeast and Southwest Alaska boarded to get groceries, travel to medical appointments, visit family and participate in sports. Last year, the system served just over 180,000 passengers.

A lounge of the state ferry Kennicott had plenty of empty seats as it departed Ketchikan for points north on February 23, 2024. Ferry ridership has declined steeply in the last decade. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Confidence has shifted. A 2019 proposal by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to cut the ferry budget from $140 million to $44 million still reverberates. While that proposal never came to fruition, Alaskans who reside in coastal communities were forced to imagine a world in which the ferry — which in many cases had carried them to Alaska and was a fixture of their lives — was no longer there.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic that bottomed out ridership in 2020 to less than a third of what it had been the prior year.

“It was one of those sinking dread feelings that was always there in the pit of your stomach,” said Robert Venables, executive director of Southeast Conference, a regional economic development group. “You watched the system get older and older and maintenance deferred, and new vessels delayed, and schedules driven by whatever budget was available.”

Now, the Alaska Marine Highway System may finally be at a turning point.

The federal infrastructure bill , passed in 2021, was a conveniently timed lifeline. The multiyear package could replace the dollars the state had stopped spending on operations and maintenance, and provide the necessary funding for constructing several new ferries.

The Kennicott, docked in Sitka. (Marc Lester / ADN)

So far, Alaska has been promised more than $400 million for ferry system operations and construction, with more on the way, through ferry funding programs that U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski pushed to include in the infrastructure bill.

But problems remain significant. The federal funding has not eliminated the annual political fights over paying for operations, nor the built-in divide between coastal communities who see the system as their highway, and Alaskans in other parts of the state who sometimes treat the ferries as an unprofitable luxury.

Even with the promise of new vessels — ones less likely to break down and disrupt schedules — some residents in coastal Alaska feel burned by a system that has left many of them stuck, with a car on one island and a home on another, or unable to make it to their destination in time for the start of a new job, an important family get-together, or a critical medical appointment.

From a system that relied mostly on state dollars for its operation since its inception, it has transitioned into one that is paid for as much by the federal government as by the state. To receive federal funding, the state must apply for grants and in some cases pitch in with its own dollars to receive support.

Aurah Landau stitches while riding the Kennicott. Landau is a former spokesperson for the Alaska Marine Highway System. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Alaska faces persistent uncertainty by relying on federal funds to operate the state service. This year, the state banked on $66 million in federal operating funds. But the state was given only $38 million, leaving a $13 million shortfall after accounting for some federal funds left over from the previous year.

In 2025, the state is banking on $76 million in federal operating funds, which are already baked into the budget plan despite the fact that the state has yet to receive the funds.

Alaska House members have agreed — for now — to add $20 million in state funds to the coming year’s budget draft to account for smaller-than-expected federal operating grants. But the funding isn’t guaranteed. When the Legislature approved similar funding last year, Dunleavy used his veto pen to cut the amount in half.

Murkowski said federal funding can be as hard to project as state budgets are in Juneau.

“I can’t, as an appropriator, predict to you what we’re going to see two fiscal years from now,” she said. “So what the state needs to do, is they need to put in place a system that they — the state — have invested in.”

‘Aging severely’

The ferry Kennicott travels through fog and light snow as it approaches Petersburg in February. (Marc Lester / ADN)

On the Kennicott, Capt. Josh McGrath assured passengers that an engine problem was under investigation. Three hours after the ferry had dropped anchor 3 miles from the Ketchikan pier, the ferry was sailing again, its malfunction repaired.

Bill and Julianne Luce rode north from Bellingham, Washington, with their dog Snow White. Bill, a retired Alaska National Guardsman and teacher in rural Alaska, and his wife, Julianne, a school librarian, maintain homes in Wasilla, Montana and Kodiak Island. They ride Alaska ferries frequently as they shuttle between them.

The reduction in ferry service has made it harder. Gone are the cross-Gulf of Alaska journeys to Whittier, necessitating a 15-hour drive through Canada and the Interior from Haines to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

“For years, I would rent a U-Haul in the Valley, drive it to Homer and put it on the ferry, get off in Kodiak, and save an entire ton of money because the building supplies in Kodiak are so expensive,” said Bill Luce. “I am concerned about the future.”

“The fleet is aging severely. I know it’s all about money, but I think it’s something that’s a need for a lot of people,” he added.

Chief Mate Tom Turner works in the bridge of the Kennicott as it navigates narrows near Sitka. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Kennicott ferry passengers Hannah Fletcher and Chris Hixon work on a puzzle as the ship nears Juneau. The couple, both active duty members of the Air Force, scheduled their cross-country move to Anchorage based in part on the Alaska ferry schedule. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Passengers on that February sailing also included a retired couple from Sitka who had purchased a van in the Lower 48 that they planned to build out for a summer road trip; a Haines high school basketball team; a couple of Air Force pilots relocating to their new duty station in Anchorage; and a state trooper moving from Juneau to Wrangell with her husband, two young children, and German shepherd.

“When you’re on an island, you pretty much rely on the ferry system to get from community to community. We wouldn’t be able to take our truck on an airplane,” said Alisha Seward, a trooper who has worked in Kodiak, Anchor Point and Soldotna. “If you don’t live in one of these small communities, you don’t realize how the ferry plays an important role.”

Like other representatives of ferry-dependent communities, Rep. Dan Ortiz of Ketchikan detects a double standard.

“They expect it to be maintained and they expect it to be snowplowed when snowplowing is required. Those are expectations that we seem to take for granted in relation to our roads,” said Ortiz, an independent lawmaker who caucuses with Democrats in the minority.

“For us in coastal Alaska, we don’t understand why people don’t see that same expectation to happen for our highway system.”

Others see a lack of understanding within the Legislature. At a House finance subcommittee meeting in February, Kodiak’s Rep. Louise Stutes took issue with Big Lake Rep. Kevin McCabe’s characterization of the ferry system as “losing money.”

“The ferry isn’t expected to make money, nor are our highways expected to make money. This is our highway, and it’s going to require maintenance,” said Stutes, a Republican.

Alaska Marine Highway System ferries, including, from left, the Columbia, LeConte and Tazlina, dock for maintenance at the Vigor shipyard in Ketchikan. (Marc Lester / ADN)

‘An afterthought’

Starting a decade ago, the number of riders declined steadily, from 319,000 to 52,000 at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

The system has taken hit after hit as a result of years of leadership change and budget shortfalls — forcing the state to sell off vessels, delay the construction of new ones, and cut back on the number of runs.

Ketchikan residents have felt the difference. Kelly Smith, Ketchikan High School’s activities director, grew up on Prince of Wales Island. He said there were periods when he would ride the ferry every week for cross-country running competitions.

“The ferry was the primary transportation,” he said. “We could always get on ferries — you could leave on a Thursday, get to Juneau by your game Friday, jump back on a ferry Sunday, back in school Monday.”

Kelly Smith, activities director for Ketchikan High School, said the infrequent service of the ferry system prevents it from being an option for student travel in most cases. He tended to the floor before a home basketball game in February. (Marc Lester / ADN)

The Ketchikan boys basketball team gets hyped up before the start of a home game on February 22, 2024. In most cases, teams must fly to participate in high school sports. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Now, Ketchikan sees one ferry stop per week, making it untenable for students to use without missing several days of classes. High school students in Ketchikan and neighboring Southeast communities ride the ferry about once per season, Smith said, if the schedule happens to work out just right or when a special ferry run is added for a school tournament. Most of the time, it just doesn’t pencil out.

Several years ago, Southeast schools calculated they collectively pay $1.4 million annually to Alaska Airlines. The hefty cost means that teams must organize regular fundraisers in order to compete against other schools. Fielding a team for a single away-game can cost more than $10,000 in airfare.

“Using the ferry right now — because it has been so frustrating and it hasn’t worked out — it’s been kind of an afterthought,” said Smith.

Crew members handle lines on the bow of the Kennicott. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Charlotte Glover, owner of Parnassus Books in Ketchikan, once relied on the ferry run to Prince Rupert, in British Columbia, as a connection to the mainland and the road system that could take her to other towns or all the way to the Lower 48.

The return of regular service to Prince Rupert is unlikely in the years to come because it requires a vessel that meets international standards. For residents of Ketchikan and those hoping to save money on the move up to Alaska, the loss of the service is a significant blow, and one that makes it harder to move to Alaska — for a summer or a lifetime.

“It’s like a death in the family,” said Glover, who moved to Alaska 32 years ago on a ferry.

“I don’t think we’ve ever felt so stuck here,” she said.

‘Not pretty’

The Alaska Marine Highway System was formed in tandem with statehood. In the early 1960s, Alaska voters had approved bond packages to build four ferries — the Malaspina, the Matanuska and the Taku, followed by the Tustumena.

The Malaspina, which once connected Southeast communities to Washington state, was sold in 2021 to Alaska businessman John Binkley for less than $130,000 and now sits moored in Ketchikan, where it serves as housing.

The Matanuska has been moored in the Ketchikan shipyard for more than a year after asbestos was found during annual work in 2022. Its fate unknown, it now serves as a floating “hotel” for ferry workers while its hull is assessed to calculate the cost of repairs.

The Taku was sold in 2018 to a Dubai-based company for around $170,000, and later recycled for scraps.

The Tustumena carries on, sailing from Homer to Kodiak, then down the Aleutian Chain to Unalaska and back, multiple times per year. But its years are numbered. Federal dollars are set to cover its replacement.

“When it was first built in the ‘60s, long before oil money, long before the state had the resources that we had, we were able to put in place a system that worked for the region, and how we get back to that, I think, is a good challenge for us. And it’s one that we all ought to take up as Alaskans,” said Murkowski.

The ferry Columbia is dry docked for maintenance at the Vigor shipyard in Ketchikan. Four state ferries were docked there in February. (Marc Lester / ADN)

The state ferry Columbia is dry docked in Ketchikan. The vessel is 418 feet long and 85 feet wide. (Marc Lester / ADN)

In February, several of the fleet’s vessels were tied up in Ketchikan for maintenance and repairs, including the Tazlina, the LeConte and the Columbia.

Gabe Baylous, the captain of the Tazlina, has been living on the Matanuska in Ketchikan. The Tazlina is one of the fleet’s newest ships, but it is limited because it lacks the crew quarters needed to facilitate longer travel, and many of the communities that the ferry was meant to serve still don’t have compatible docks. Projects to add crew quarters and build new ferry docks in several communities are set to take place in the coming years, funded by the federal infrastructure bill.

Baylous grew up in Southeast Alaska and started as a cadet on the Malaspina in 2004 — at a time when working for the ferry system meant the promise of a guaranteed pension and regular sailings to different parts of the state.

Now, he watches crew members come and go, with no prospect of a pension to keep them and the possibility of higher wages in the shipping industry to lure them away. Having so many ships tied up for much of the year also means that newer crew members take longer to get the necessary hours at sea to meet their qualification requirements.

“It’s always optimistic when there’s more money,” he said. “I hope we right-size the system.”

Gabe Baylous, captain of the ferry Tazlina, said he’s optimistic that federal funding might help “right-size” the Marine Highway System. (Marc Lester / ADN)

As of March, the ferry system had vacancies for 26 engineers to run all seven possible vessels. The system also had 27 openings for officers with full pilotage, which requires the ability to draw marine charts from memory.

In Ketchikan, the crews of the Columbia, Matanuska, LeConte and Tazlina work 9-to-5 tending to the lines, fixing engines, assessing thickness of the steel hulls and making sure that when the time comes, the vessels can return to their schedules.

The four operating vessels in the system offer no room for redundancy. Any malfunction could mean canceled voyages with no chance for another vessel to pick up the slack.

“It’s pretty tight. We’re managing to get people moved around, but it’s not pretty,” said Kerri Traudt, the ferry scheduler, explaining why it’s hard to add runs for special events during a recent ferry operations board meeting. “I’d like to be everything to everybody, but at some point, something’s got to give.”

Passengers tend to their dogs on the car deck of the Kennicott. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Passengers wait to depart as the Kennicott as it approaches Petersburg. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Ask coastal Alaska residents about what it would take to return the Alaska Marine Highway System to its former glory, and you’ll get an array of responses. For some, it’s bringing back the cross-Gulf sailings that connect Whittier — and Anchorage, the state’s biggest city — to Southeast Alaska and the Lower 48; many long for the return of service to Prince Rupert and a portal to the Canadian road system; and for others, it’s the addition of a ferry run per week that would make quick half-week trips from one community to another possible.

“We just don’t have extra boats in the fleet to have that luxury to be covering everything, everywhere,” Alaska Marine Highway System Director Craig Tornga told lawmakers in March.

‘A bathtub curve’

The engine room on the LeConte — which for five decades has plied Southeast waters — is a windowless cavern where every piece serves a purpose. During the LeConte’s extended shipyard period this year, every piston and cylinder in the engine room was replaced. Eric Downer, chief engineer on the LeConte, said an engine overhaul is needed for every 30,000 hours of operation, which equates to about a decade on the LeConte. This is likely the ship’s last engine overhaul.

“We probably won’t get 30,000 hours out of them again,” said Downer.

“The best way to explain boats is a bathtub curve,” he added. “So you’ve got a brand new boat and you’ve got lots of problems. And then it goes nice and flat. And then, as it gets older, you’ve got lots of problems again.”

Mechanic Ronnie Giroir sprays diesel fuel to clean engine parts on the ferry LeConte during its maintenance in Ketchikan. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Crew members like Downer are charged with keeping vessels running, but they have no control over the critical question: When is it time to retire a ship and replace it with a new one?

“It’s not that they’re bad boats, it’s just that they’re old boats. Like an older car — you’ve got to put money in it,” said Downer.

McGrath, the Kennicott’s captain, said malfunctions are happening more often as the vessels age.

“It makes my job harder because you have to deal with the consequences of equipment breaking,” said McGrath.

Snow-dusted peaks reflect in the calm waters of a passage near Sitka. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Josh McGrath, captain of the Kennicott, second from left, oversees navigation through narrows near Sitka. (Marc Lester / ADN)

On the ship’s bridge, McGrath oversaw a laser-focused crew as it navigated narrow waters near Sitka. In a maze of islands, spruce trees loomed large and nearby rocky shores under turquoise water betrayed the tight confines of the route. The beauty is undeniable, but any mistake could lead to a repair that will cost millions. In the distance, humpback whales broke the calm surface of the water, their tails making appearances below Mount Edgecumbe. Overnight snow still covered the treetops.

Time moves differently on the ferry. On an airplane trip, a two-hour delay would be maddening. On the Kennicott, two hours were a blip, and one eased by the options of a bar, an impressive collection of puzzles, a 24/7 espresso machine, ample spots to stretch out and nap, and the availability of clean restrooms, showers and even a washer and dryer.

By the time the Kennicott arrived in Juneau the next day, Captain McGrath had made up for time lost to the malfunction near Ketchikan. Under northern lights and the Big Dipper mirroring a state flag painted onto the stack, the Kennicott would be on its way up the Lynn Canal before daybreak.

The northern lights glow over Auke Bay as the Kennicott approaches Juneau. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Next: Federal funding makes a new Alaska state ferry possible — but there are no guarantees.

Iris Samuels

Iris Samuels is a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News focusing on state politics. She previously covered Montana for The AP and Report for America and wrote for the Kodiak Daily Mirror. Contact her at [email protected].

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