Autumn has been my favorite time of year since I finished school. Going back to school after the freedom of summer was unpleasant.

But now, fall is delightful. The bugs stop biting; the grass stops growing; the weeds in the garden stop spreading; the summer crowds subside; the fading green leaves turn to bright reds and yellows; waiting lines become much shorter at the banks and grocery stores; the ratio of strangers to friends that you see on the street gets smaller; the shorter days encourage getting home at a more reasonable time; the homey smell of wood smoke is in the air; and there is a holiday each month that gives folks a day off from work.

Caleb Enos made a reconnaissance trip to the West Coast recently. On Facebook, he posted photos of his visit to the Balboa Island Ferry. They let him pose in the pilot house but stopped short of letting him drive the ferryboat.

Many Chappaquiddickers replied with remembrances of their own connections with that sister ferry service. Skip Bettencourt’s father Tony, who built the first motorized barge, City of Chappaquiddick, drove the Balboa Ferry as did Skip’s half-brother Richie. Foster Silva, who built the first On Time, also spent some time as a Balboa Ferry captain.

In appearance, the Chappy Ferry and the Balboa Ferry have a striking similarity. The vessels look very much alike. However, that’s about all that they have in common.

The weather at the Balboa Ferry run is as nice 365 days a year as the very nicest day at the Chappy Ferry. There is very little tidal current or wind to deal with so they get by with engines of less than half the horse power of the Chappy Ferries.

The vehicle weight limit on the Balboa ferryboats is 10,000 pounds. That would mean that the Chappy Ferry maintenance tool trucks couldn’t ride those ferries. The Balboa loading ramps have no counter weights to hold them up. Instead, they rest on floats. Only the last six feet of the ramp is hinged to drop down to the ferry deck. The Balboa ferryboats sink down at the ends by only inches when unloading their heaviest vehicles. The On Time ferryboats sink down as much as two feet when our heaviest vehicles board.

The seawater temperature at the Balboa Ferry varies between 68 and 58 degrees. Those ferryboats carry a rigid ladder for hanging over the side to rescue a person who has fallen overboard. You would have to be conscious and physically fit to climb up that ladder. The seawater temperature in Edgartown Harbor varies between 73 and 28 degrees. The On Time ferries are both equipped with a rescue platform that has the capacity to retrieve an unconscious person from the water.

The Balboa ferries don’t have signs that read “sit down while underway and docking.” But they operate on very quiet waters. The Chappy Ferry deals with very foul currents and strong breezes. Asking passengers to sit down is in reaction to many instances of passengers being unaware of the challenges of landing gently in the ferry slips here. Our West Coast friends do, however, have signs asking you to turn off your headlights while waiting for the ferry and to stop your engine and set your brake on the ferry.

When Seymour Beek, owner of the Balboa Ferry, visited the Chappy Ferry a decade ago, a concrete mixer was approaching the ramp to board the ferry. Though he was very curious to see how the On Time III would handle that big vehicle, he knew better than to watch the loading procedure. If something went terribly wrong, the U.S. Coast Guard would be wanting to talk to witnesses. With his experience with ferry boats, Seymour would have made an ideal witness. So, he walked around to the other side of the ferry house and waited until the mixer shut its engine off before taking a peek.

That concrete mixer would have weighed more than three times what his ferryboats could handle and Seymour was aware of that. All went well of course — as it does daily with heavy trucks on the Chappy Ferry.