Ferries between the mainland and Ocracoke will continue to run on a reduced schedule until Monday.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division extended the altered schedule on Pamlico Sound between Cedar Island, Swan Quarter and Ocracoke through Monday while the Army Corps of Engineers continues 24-hour dredging to combat shoaling issues in the ferry channel just outside Ocracoke’s Silver Lake Harbor.
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- Ocracoke to Cedar Island: 7:30 a.m., 1 p.m.
- Cedar Island to Ocracoke: 10:30 a.m., 4:30 p.m.
- Ocracoke to Swan Quarter: 7 a.m., 1:30 p.m.
- Swan Quarter to Ocracoke: 10 a.m., 4:30 p.m.
Shoaling occurs when sand and sediment fill into a ferry channel, making water depths too shallow and the channel too narrow for safe operation of the ferry system’s largest vessels.
The Corps has two dredges, Murden and Merritt, working together in Bigfoot Slough channel to perform 24-hour dredging. On Monday, the Ferry Division will make a test run in the channel with its largest vessel, the M/V Swan Quarter. If water depths and channel widths are at acceptable levels, the ferry division will resume its regular schedule on both routes Tuesday, according to NCDOT.
The schedule was first reduced from three to two ferry runs per day March 26 and again April 1, then April 5. The ferry was suspended completely from April 8 to April 12, all due to shoaling in the ferry channel just outside of Ocracoke’s Silver Lake Harbor. Two ferry runs resumed April 13.
For up-to-the-minute information on schedule changes on the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter routes, please follow @NCFerryPamSound on Twitter.
