Transportation

The 71-year-old wooden tugboat Challenger that became a Seattle bunk-and-breakfast and later a home for a Juneau family has been dismantled and disposed.

An Alaska Airlines flight on its way to Ketchikan and Juneau was struck by lightning Sunday night. No one was hurt, but it shook people up.

Three Southeast villages endured the longest ferry drought in recent memory. The LeConte didn’t arrive for more than a month, leaving communities such as Angoon to depend more on subsistence or the only grocery store in town. As lawmakers consider even deeper cuts to ferry services, some locals are already getting a taste of what that reality could be like.

The Alaska Marine Highway System made it through one step in the legislative budget process without further cuts. But those could come later.

Generally speaking, the longer a project drags on, the bigger the price tag. More money is spent on contracting costs, machinery, staff time, rent and fuel. Inflation takes a toll, as does the need to pay for temporary repairs to existing routes.

For the Miles family, living aboard Challenger was a lifestyle. Tim Miles sometimes still thinks of the boat as a living, breathing entity.