Catching the Ferry

The trick to catching the ferry is to plan to be at the dock 20- 30 minutes before it leaves.  That gives you enough time to corral your stuff from your car into carts or totes, be sure your groceries are in a cooler, throw away that banana peel in the back seat (trust me, you don’t want to be on the island for two weeks in July without removing all food and wrappers that your kids may have left there) park your car back in the shade, and wait at the top of the ramp until all passengers have disembarked.

For directions to the ferry from the airport, click here.

For step-by-step directions from the IOP Connector (517) click here.

It is the ferry captain’s job to depart on time.  If you arrive at 12:55 for the 1:00 ferry, and you have to load a cart, park your car, give your dog a drink, and haul your cooler aboard, you will probably miss the boat.  The captain can’t hold up the schedule just because you got stuck at a traffic light.  The ferry captain MUST leave the dock NO LATER than 2 minutes past the hour, and he can only wait that minute or two when directly requested by an owner.  Which means, if you arrive at 3:55 for the ferry, you are going to miss it.  And even if you are standing there with your hat in one hand and your luggage in another, he is required to pull away.  If that happens, just load your stuff into the carts, and walk over to either the marina store or Morgan Creek Grill for a drink.  FYI– there is a bottle opener on the ferry on the post right behind the captain. 

When you arrive in the parking lot, pull up under the roofed area and unload your belongings into a cart.  Get a wheeled cart and carefully load your belongings into it.  Wheeled luggage can just be pulled aboard the ferry.  Try to limit your cart use to one per family.

If three families arrive with luggage, kids, dogs, and groceries for a week at the exact same time, it will take some good-natured logistics to get everyone aboard, but it will still work.  There is a little known and even more seldom used heirarchy regarding the carts.  Owners take first priority, then their guests, then renters, then contractors.  In eight years of riding the ferry, I have only seen somebody exercise this priority once, but it does happen.  You should be able to get all of your stuff aboard, one way or another.  You can usually fit two bins in a cart, and then put soft luggage on top.  Sometimes you can fit four bins.  The reason bins are great is that, even though they are heavy, they can be rolled onto and off of the ferry by cart.  IF there are too many carts being used, they can be lifted from the cart to the other storage areas on the ferry.  Rolling luggage and coolers can just be rolled on.

Once you have your gear in a cart or lined up to go, put it on the right hand side (not the side with the benches) and wait for the incoming boat to offload passengers. (Do not go down onto the floating dock where the ferry arrives.)  Usually the deck hand will pull your cart down for you, but you should wait for them to bring up all of the disembarking luggage and then ask if you should pull it down the ramp.  Even if you bring your cart to the bottom of the ramp, the deckhand will put it on the boat.

Now you find a seat on the ferry and wait until you are asked for your access pass.