Peter Wells has skippered the Chappy Ferry since 1974 and purchased the business in 2008. During that time he has had to navigate all types of storms, but this winter has thrown some extra force at him, from heavy snows to thick ice that has at times clogged the channel that separates Chappaquiddick from Edgartown.
On Tuesday, service had to be halted for a few hours due to an extreme ice pack that had formed in the water. And on Sunday morning, the current became so strong and filled with ice that it carried the ferry sideways while two pickup trucks were on-board.
Captain Becca Lamarche, who was operating the ferry at the time, was finally able to prop the corner of the ferry into the spare slip on the Chappaquiddick side, but couldn’t effectively line it up in the slip to allow the cars to disembark. The truck drivers opted to step-off on foot and wait at home for the few hours it took for the channel to clear.
Mr. Wells said waiting for currents to clear out the ice has been a daily guessing game.
“You can fight Mother Nature for hours on end, and then five minutes of her time and it’s all gone,” he said.
Last week, Mr. Wells switched from the On Time 3 to the On Time 2 due to its protected propeller. He said that when the On Time 2 first started making trips it wore a tutu of seaweed and scum. This was soon cleared away but the bottom of the boat left behind streaks of blue paint on top of the ice sheet.
A breach that formed at Norton Point on New Year’s Day added another layer of complexity to the flowing ice. Mr. Wells said the opening in Katama Bay tends to push the ice southward, but he is careful not to assume nature will act a certain way at any given time.
On a rare afternoon last weekend when the harbor was mostly clear, Mr. Wells manned the ferry himself while pointing out some of the difficulties of navigating the ferry during a harsh winter.
“If the ice is all piled up in there, the ramp has no place to go,” he said referring to the slip. “It teeter-totters on the ice. I was under there years and years ago with one of the other ferry drivers with axes chopping it out.”
Another challenge during the winter is simply the cold. Though the ferry has heaters in the captain’s cabin, when Mr. Wells first started working the ferry he’d get pneumonia every winter.
“I’d get overheated and then unzip my jacket,” he said. “That was like the first 10 winters.”
Warming temperatures don’t necessarily bring immediate relief either. Temperatures are rising this week and expected to reach a high of 36 degrees on Saturday, but depending on the wind and current direction, ice chunks from either Cape Pogue Bay or Katama Bay could break away and clog the channel.
When the channel is blocked, the ferry only operates during life-threatening emergencies. Mr. Wells said there are other rescue plans if the ferry can’t get through.
Ice that is later rained on can also be tricky, he said, as it can slice through the bottom layer of the ferry, which is made of fiberglass.
“The top two-inches is very hard, very crystallized ice, which is like a razor blade on top of the other ice,” he said.
Mr. Wells recalled a day in 2015 when the ice was particularly bad and the ferry couldn’t get through for hours. The Chappy Ferry crew eventually drove a motor boat along the edge of the ice on the Edgartown Lighthouse side, hoping to break the ice with waves created by the boat going back and forth.
This season the crew brought out the company-owned excavator, which was used in 2015. The machine sits on the ferry and scoops-up the ice chunks, moving them to the side until the channel is clear.
So far the excavator hasn’t been used this winter but with cold temperatures still on the horizon, Mr. Wells said he’s careful to never underestimate the worst winter can do.
“We don’t second guess nature,” he said. “We know better.”
This article appears in February 13, 2026.