Wednesday - Ferry boat day. Our ticket for the Ocracoke-to-Swanquarter ferry was for 1:30 pm. To reach that ferry we had to drive to Hatteras and catch the Hatteras-to-Ocracoke Island ferry, then drive the length of Ocracoke Island to the town of Ocracoke to board the Ocracoke-to-Swanquarter ferry.
My plan was to catch the 9:30 am Hatteras-to-Ocracoke ferry, in case the ferry was full and we’d have to wait for the 10:30 ferry. For some reason, we both slept until nearly 9 am. Fortunately, we can break camp in 10 minutes if we have to. We did. When we drove up to the ferry ramp at precisely 9:28, we were waved on board. The ferry was only half-full. It is the off-season after all. Last Monday we rode this ferry with just the van. This morning we had the camper with us. That was no problem. There were large trucks on the boat, so they are used to big loads.
It was 10:45 by the time we were on dry land, heading towards Ocracoke. We drove extra slow to soak it all in. The Outer Banks National Seashore is special. There is nothing like it - driving down a sand spit not much wider than the road itself.
We were in line for the Ocracoke-to-Swanquarter ferry at 11:45 am. This ferry sells limited space for vehicles with trailers. It was fortunate that I snagged one of four remaining spots for cars with campers when I made reservations last Monday. One giant RV bus seemed to be turned away. Twice he tried to get in line, but was booted out.
Although we were early, we had a strong cell signal so I used the time to get caught up in my journaling. The app I use to assemble my journal, Constant Contact, requires a strong Wi-Fi or cell signal to work. That isn’t always available.
There are two ferry routes that depart from Ocracoke. One goes to Cedar Island where highway 12 continues down the eastern coast. Our ferry heads northwest where we continue inland along the Pamlico River. Our next campground, Goose Creek State Park, sits on the north bank of the Pamlico River. At this point, the Pamlico River is still a wide body of water with another free ferry crossing it. We will probably ride that ferry tomorrow.
The long 3-hour Ocracoke-to-Swanquarter ride was as interesting as I imagined it would be. We crossed 60 miles of the vast Pamlico Sound. Nearly the entire way, the ferry had to navigate through channels marked by red buoys on the right and green buoys on the left. Even when we completely lost sight of all land, the buoys kept us away from the shallow shoals that permeate just below the water’s surface. With modern GPS, finding these channels is not a problem. I can imagine in the pre-GPS days on a foggy day, it must have been brutal.
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