Ferries and Islands

The islands and the water

Two islands lie off the south coast of Cape Cod across Nantucket Sound: Martha's Vineyard, the larger and nearer, and Nantucket, some thirty miles out. Neither has a bridge to the mainland. Every visitor comes by boat or by small plane, and the boat is part of the pleasure: the harbor falling away behind, the open sound, the island rising low out of the sea ahead.

The ferries have run for nearly two centuries. The Nantucket Steamboat Company was founded in 1833, and when the railroads reached Hyannis in 1854 and Woods Hole in 1872, the boats moved to meet the trains. The ports they settled on are still the ports today.

The Steamship Authority

The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, formed by the Commonwealth in 1949 from the old private lines, is both the regulator of every ferry to the islands and the largest operator. It is the only ferry line that carries cars to and from either island, and it also runs the freight boats that supply them.

To the Vineyard it runs from Woods Hole, at the southwestern tip of Falmouth and of Cape Cod, to Vineyard Haven all year and to Oak Bluffs from the third week of May to the third week of October; either crossing takes about forty-five minutes. To Nantucket it runs from Hyannis all year: the car ferry takes about two and a quarter hours, and a passenger-only catamaran, the Iyanough, makes the crossing in about an hour from mid-April to late December.

Taking a car, or not

A car on the island ferry is the exception, not the rule. Space on the Steamship Authority's car ferries is limited and in demand all summer, so reserve a car place well ahead if you truly need one. Most visitors leave the car on the mainland near the terminal and cross as foot passengers.

On Nantucket the regional transit authority runs buses all year, and an extensive network of bike paths makes cycling a popular way to explore the island. On the Vineyard the Martha's Vineyard Transit Authority runs buses all year across the island, and the three main towns, Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, are close together. For a stay of a few days a car is rarely worth its ferry place.

The other island boats

The Steamship Authority licenses the other passenger lines. Hy-Line Cruises, a family company that began as harbor tours in Hyannis in 1962, runs the second-largest island service, passengers only. It started the first high-speed catamaran service to Nantucket in 1995 and added a fast boat to the Vineyard in 2005, sailing from Hyannis to Nantucket and to Oak Bluffs.

In summer more boats join them. The Island Queen runs from Falmouth to Oak Bluffs and the Pied Piper from Falmouth to Edgartown; Seastreak runs from New Bedford to Oak Bluffs and Nantucket; Freedom Cruises runs from Harwich Port to Nantucket; and a fast ferry crosses from North Kingstown, Rhode Island, to Oak Bluffs. Seasonal boats also link Nantucket with Oak Bluffs, so the two islands can be joined in one trip.

Choosing a harbor

Pick the port by the island and by how you are traveling. For the Vineyard with a car, Woods Hole is the only choice. For the Vineyard on foot, Woods Hole again, or Falmouth or Hyannis in summer, or New Bedford for travelers coming up from the south. For Nantucket, Hyannis all year, with the fast catamarans for speed; Harwich Port and New Bedford in season.

Vineyard Haven is the island's main port of entry and the year-round home of the Steamship Authority wharf; Oak Bluffs has the second, seasonal wharf and a small, busy harbor. From either, Edgartown lies at the eastern end of the island, and from Edgartown two small ferries, the On Time II and On Time III, carry cars across to Chappaquiddick.

Provincetown by sea

At the far tip of Cape Cod, Provincetown is a long drive from Boston but a short sail. Two seasonal ferries run from Boston and one from Plymouth, all docking at MacMillan Pier in the center of town, just east of Town Hall. The Plymouth boat, run by Capt. John Boats, makes one round trip a day from June to September from the State Wharf in Plymouth Center.

On a full summer day the pier handles eleven ferry trips carrying more than five thousand passengers, along with the whale watch boats that leave from the same pier. A ferry out and a ferry back makes Provincetown an easy day trip from Boston.

Salem and the harbor islands

Two more crossings start in Boston. The Salem Ferry, the 92-foot high-speed catamaran Nathaniel Bowditch, named for the Salem navigator who wrote the American Practical Navigator, crosses from Boston to Salem in about fifty minutes from May to October, a pleasant alternative to the train.

Out in the harbor itself lie the Boston Harbor Islands, a national and state park. Boston Harbor City Cruises runs seasonal ferries from Long Wharf to Georges Island, with the Civil War-era Fort Warren, and to Spectacle Island, and a ferry runs from Hingham to Peddocks Island. The park has hiking trails and beaches, and within it stands Boston Light, the oldest lighthouse station in the United States.

Or by air

The quicker alternative to the boat is the small plane. Martha's Vineyard Airport is the island's main airport, and Cape Air, which has its northeastern hub at Logan, flies there year-round from Boston and New York, with seasonal flights from Hyannis, New Bedford and Nantucket. Nantucket's airport becomes one of the busiest in Massachusetts in summer, with seasonal commercial flights and a crowd of private aircraft. At the other end of the Cape, Provincetown Municipal Airport sits just east of Race Point, surrounded by the national seashore, with regular scheduled service. Flying saves hours, but the planes are small and weather affects them as it does the boats.

Planning the crossing

Summer crossings fill up, and so do island beds, so plan the ferry and the room together, especially for July and August weekends. Weather and machinery matter too: crossings can be cancelled, and in the first four months of 2018 mechanical problems cancelled 549 sailings between the Vineyard and Falmouth, most on the Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven route, so leave slack in the plan before a flight home. The islands are covered in Where to Stay and the itineraries.