Alternate Pamlico Ferry Schedule Extended

The alternate Pamlico Sound Ferry schedule has been extended to Monday as dredging efforts continue in Bigfoot Slough, where water depths were still too shallow Thursday for larger ferries.

This is the second time the state Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division has extended the alternate schedule on Pamlico Sound between Cedar Island, Swan Quarter and Ocracoke due to continued shoaling issues in the ferry channel just outside of Ocracoke’s Silver Lake Harbor. The schedule was first altered March 26, then again April 1.  The following schedule is through Monday:

• 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 Army Corps of Engineers’ dredge Murden continued this week to work in the Bigfoot Slough channel to clear the shoaling, but dredging operations are dependent on weather and tides. Once the dredging is complete and water depths and channel widths return to acceptable levels, the Ferry Division said it will resume its regular schedule on both routes.

For up-to-the-minute information on schedule changes on the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter routes, please follow @NCFerryPamSound on Twitter