The M/V Tustumena’s last sailing to Kodiak Island for this winter season is set for this Thursday, Jan. 2. Weather delays and scheduling changes mean Alaska Marine Highway System’s mainliner ferry won’t stop through some archipelago communities until after New Year’s.
According to the state’s Department of Transportation website, the Tustumena is scheduled to arrive in Kodiak on Thursday morning and leave at 5:45 p.m. that evening. The ocean class ferry will make its final stops in Ouzinkie and Port Lions before returning to Homer.
Ferry terminal staff in Kodiak, Amanda Becker, said in a social media post that the Tusty’s last run of the season will also be Chief Purser Michael Queen’s final sailing onboard the 60-year-old vessel.
Queen, who has been purser with the Tustumena since 2009, is retiring at the end of January.
“Some of my passengers, the children passengers, are now grandparents. And it’s the generations.…and these are my peeps," Queen said. "I get to see the generations, and it’s the generations and the families that are most important," he told KMXT during one of the Tustumena’s sailings from Homer to Kodiak in January of 2024.
After January 3, 2025 the Tustumena is scheduled to be in the shipyard in Seward for annual maintenance until April 3.
