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Alaska!
Hey everyone
We are on the Ferry on the way out of Alaska after 6 amazing weeks here. I will post pictures and video if I can when we can back to the lower 48. Were the biggest thing on the ferry it was a bit nerve racking getting it on but I have great pixs and video from several angles. We loaded at low tide in Haines and I was really worried about the transition from the ramp to the boat deck and the fact I only had 2″ clearance but that part went great and the crews on the Columbia are great! The staterooms and services on board the ferry aren’t as nice as a cruise ship but way nicer than we were expecting…. seen amazing scenery, wildlife and lots of whales… Live is good! Special thanks to Gil for all his input and advice from his trip to Alaska… So if anyone is on the fence about taking a trip to the final frontier…. do it!
Sid thanks for helping AL… we are going to try and stop by and visit KC on our way home…. our kids who met Al in Indio are really getting concered that Al and Mary Ellen have been “busless” for so long….
Bill
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11 Replies
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Bill, we too, are concerned about Al and Mary Ellen as we are the lucky ones who have their former XLII!
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Awesome, can’t wait to see pictures!
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Bill, (Or Others)
I did not know about the Ferry /trips. Which one (or if more than one) did you take?
How far ahead of trip do you have to reserve a place?
Thanks,
Jim -
Jim,
I can only speak to Alaska at this point having spent a good chunk of the summer there…. The state of Alaska runs what they call the Alaska Marine Highway system connecting lots of cities that don’t have access by road. We sailed from Haines, AK to Bellingham, WA… We left haines around 1am on monday and returned today (friday morning) to Bellingham, WA. At Gil’s recomendation we made our reservation just about a year in advance… getting car space only it probably isn’t necessary to book that far in advance but we got the second to last state room of our size… which we highly recomend if you are going to travel that far…. USCG doesn’t allow you to stay in the bus while ferry is underway. We had a bit of drama (bus problems) getting off the ferry that I will post about tomorrow after I get some sleep… long day of driving today.
Bill
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Ok Guys,
Here are the pictures of me loading on the Alaskan Ferry. This is going down the ramp at Haines to the Ferry (Columbia) at low tide.
All the way on the ramp.
Crossing into ship.
All the way in. Didn’t hit top or bottom.
Hard 90 degree turn to get into lane 4. Almost done!
All parked… should have had them take a picture of my relief!
Buddy the Guard dog kept watch for the next four days…
Shot of the bus while in port with the back door open…
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Ok so here is the rest of the story on the challenges I had getting the Bus off the ferry in Bellingham yesterday.
We had a freezer full of halibut and salmon and I spoke with Leon at Marathon this is what we did.
After parking the Bus, they blocked all my wheels front and back. I used the level low system to drop the coach as low as I could. Leon suggested and the ferry folks agreed.
turned off auto gen.
I turned off the second inverter from the remote.
Then I basically turned off all 120v and 12v everything except for the circuit that had the refer on it. Techlink, all AV, lighting everything was turned off. Turned off the main Chassis switch and went to bed.
I checked on the bus 3-4 times a day when we were allowed to walk the dog and everything was great. refer worked great.
I asked for permission to access the car deck 15 minutes before offloading would happen so I could reverse the above and start it up and get everything aired back up.
Chassis and Geny fired right up… air pressure came up… for front, rear and aux… feeling really good so far. walked around the coach… checked everything and everything looked good…
Here is where the it get’s interesting…
Go to put the bus in drive… flashing 6… crap… that’s not good. try again, turned it off started it again… nothing. won’t go in gear.
Call Leon at Marathon ( thank god they were there) tried a few things he suggested nothing… bus wont move.
Ferry folks are being really cool but at this point I am totally messing them up… nobody else on the entire ferry can leave until I do… Leon thinks it has to do with the slides prohibiting the Transmission from going into gear… has me call Valid…
Ferry first mate informs me they are calling a tow truck we have to move…. nightmares of the damage that is going to cause… keep working with Luke at Valid and he is able to talk me thru disabling the safety lock for the slides… Bus finally moves… rest of ferry cheers… off we go. My wife is in the towd car on the second deck wondering what is taking so long…
I get the bus parked safely off the ferry and then notice that the air doors inside the bus are not working either… call Leon back and he figures out what happened so for the benefit of anyone else with a marathon this was the cause of the problem I had.
When I powered everything down including the aux air compressor after 4 days the aux air system bled down to a point where something in the check valve or something under the driver seat opened exhausting all the air. The Valid slide computer sensed the slide seals were no longer fully inflated and sealed and therefore not secure for travel which prohibited the Transmission to engage.
On my coach there is some kind of check valve or pressure switch with a small plastic tube that goes thru the floor under the drivers seat… i will take a picture and post tomorrow… but anyways… Leon talked me thru reseting whatever it is called by closing the valve, covering the exhaust tube with my finger and then re-opening the valve and then magic all was well again.
This whole ferry thing was stressing me out… I was worried it wasn’t going to start or something wasn’t going to be right but never for a moment did I think that the air system and slide sensors could create this much havic…
Marathon and Valid were great… Called Valid back and they helped me resore everything to normal and off to Glacier National Park we went.
Can’t say enough about the whole crew on the Alaskan Marine Highway system… First rate folks and we are sure we will travel with them again.
Bill
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Wow. What a story. It seems that most of the time I have issues it is something either I did or didn’t do or a fairly easy fix. This forum sure helps out.
Great pics on the ferry. I thought your story was going to be about the fish in the freezer going bad/rotting. That might have been worse.
Also glad to see others getting their kids out on the open road like that…….Very impressive.
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Great post Bill, what an experience. We need to clone Leon! I always wondered about putting a bus on the ferry and no way I could handle that stress. The kids will always remember that adventure.
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Wow is right. My nerves could not take it. The angle of that ramp going in looks severe. I do not think my bus could handle it. Glad you made it. What a story to tell! Have a great time at Glacier.
Davy
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If you guys want to practice steep slopes and hard transistions come on to Knoxville. For a very modest fee I will let you pactice on my driveway.
What I noticed missing from the photos was someone laying on their belly looking at the underside of the coach to make sure it had clearance and that the stuff that usually hangs down like baffles, generator muffler, fittings, etc. were going to clear the ground. Owners of the X3 chassis are going to have to be extra carefull because that little increase in the wheelbase will have a big effect on whether something drags or clears.
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Great post and pictures. thanks for sharing the adventure.
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