She's getting on in years, but to the people who love her, the Tustumena is still the queen.
On a long July evening in Southwest Alaska, Jim Brittain and his daughter Erin-Anne watched for whales from the solarium of the Alaska Marine Highway System's quirkiest ferry.
The Tustumena is stout, freshly repainted blue, gold and white and creeping into her second half-century sailing some of the wildest seas Alaska has to offer.