Traditionally, the Chappy Ferry runs on an abbreviated schedule on Christmas Day. Years ago, the ferry ran only every hour on the hour all day long with the night schedule being normal. The night schedule actually used to be basically hourly way back when, as well. To accommodate evening high school activities the night service has become more continuous.

As Chappy got busier during the holidays we found that during the afternoon on Christmas Day, the ferry captain had so many cars lined up at the top of the hour, that by the time they were all across, there was no time left to go home to be with family before the next batch of travelers showed up. So, we abandoned one half of the tradition and started running full time Christmas afternoon.

But the mornings have remained fairly quiet, and so we are still clinging to the other half of the tradition but with a slight modification. Instead of running hourly at the top of the hour, the ferry will run hourly at the so-called bottom of the hour.

To clarify: the ferry will run at 6:30 a.m. for anyone waiting in line at that time. Then again at 7:30 a.m. and so forth through 11:30 a.m. Starting at noon, the ferry will run continuously. This modification was made at the request of several church attenders who pointed out that since services start at the top of the hour it would be more convenient to go over a half hour ahead of time instead of an hour. Same with the return.

It makes sense to me. This year, there may be much less attendance than normal, but we might as well get on the new schedule now. Happy Holidays!