Cutter Maple’s Alaskan farewell a possible journey to remember

Built in Wisconsin in 2000, and commissioned in Sitka in 2001, the USCGC Maple is a fixture on the Sitka waterfront. The voyage to her reassignment in Charleston may take the Maple through the famed Northwest Passage. (Photo courtesy KCAW)
The 225-foot buoy tender, Coast Guard Cutter Maple, is bound for Baltimore for a refit, and then for her new homeport of Charleston, South Carolina.
The Maple’s 50-member crew will return to Sitka and spend six months preparing for their replacement ship