Tangier ferry reopens, provides needed transportation

TANGIER

For more than 300 years, people have sailed between Onancock, a town which sits sheltered along a creek on the Eastern Shore, and Tangier, a small island in the Chesapeake Bay.

They made the 18-nautical-mile journey for trade and pleasure, connecting businesses and families one boat trip at a time.

In recent times, both towns have seen their economies shift. While most of Onancock's trade is now done by land, a good portion of the town's income derives from tourists interested in its water-based past. On Tangier, residents have been working to augment the island's crab- and oyster-based economy with bed-and-breakfasts, restaurants and tours.

For the past two decades, a ferry connected the two towns, bringing tourists out to Tangier and taking the island's residents to the mainland to conduct their business. So when ferry service stopped about a year and a half ago, it left both sides somewhat stranded.

Thanks to a determined group of people, trial ferry service resumed early last month. If the two towns can generate enough traffic for it, and the government can bear some of the cost, the ferry will remain past late September.

For Onancock, this would help it regain its status as a gateway destination for tourists and bring Tangier residents to the area to shop. For Tangier, the ferry promises to boost its tourism trade and give its residents another vital link to the mainland.

"Living out in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay," Tangier Mayor James Eskridge said, "it's always good to have options."

When the ferry stopped running in December 2007, bed-and-breakfast establishments on both sides felt the pinch first. Since they could no longer pitch trips to the other town, business dropped off. That meant fewer people eating at the towns' restaurants and less tax money going into the municipal coffers.

Linda Nicola, who took over Onancock's Colonial Manor Inn in 2007, saw her bookings plummet by a third when the ferry shut down. Now that it has returned, business is back up.

She was among a delegation of merchants and government representatives who rode out to Tangier on Thursday aboard the new ferry, the 36-foot Joyce Marie II. The group came bearing gifts - of goods and services, of cross-promotion and trade.

Inside the island's modest Sunday school, with plates of clam fritters and crab cake balls poised nearby, the delegation took turns speaking to several dozen of Tangier's 550 residents.

Last October, a group from both towns began brainstorming how to restore the ferry, said Kris LaMontagne, who runs the Inn at Onancock with his wife, Lisa, and also serves on the Onancock Town Council.

The short-term goal was to get the ferry running again for the summer, he told them. The long-term goal is to get it running year-round, which would likely require government help - how much, he couldn't pinpoint.

A round-trip ferry ride currently costs $25 from Onancock and $20 from Tangier. With a subsidy, he said, the price could go down to about $5. This was met with an elongated "oooooh" from the crowd.

LaMontagne said the hope is to put the ferry under the Virginia Department of Transportation, which operates a half-dozen free ferries around Virginia, including the Jamestown-Scotland run. An earlier request for federal funding through VDOT didn't come through, but he said the ferry committee would keep trying.

Ferry service also runs between Tangier and Reedville, on the Northern Neck, and between Crisfield, Md. For Onancock, Crisfield is the primary competition for Tangier's business. But the ferry committee said Thursday that it is ready to deal.

Sandy Manter, Onancock's town manager, told the room that the city is offering free parking for the island residents' cars, as opposed to the monthly charges they pay in Crisfield. Representatives from Runninger's Pharmacy in Onancock and Eastern Shore Rural Health on U.S. 13 touted their versatility and convenience. Someone brought up the new Wal-Mart, due to open next year.

Manter said the new ferry is great for both sides. For Onancock, "this returns us to our past. We're here because of the waterfront. It's part of who we are as a town."

As for serving Tangier, she added later, "there's just something inherently wrong that we pass them on to Maryland."

The Onancock ferry currently runs four round trips per day, five days per week and offers a shorter ride than the Crisfield run. This allows people in either town a number of ways to plan their journeys.

All this sounded great to Tangier resident Bob Scott. If he wants to shop in Crisfield, he has to pay $20 per person each way for the ferry to Maryland, where he keeps his car at $30 a month. If he misses the last ferry back, he has to stay at a hotel, adding more expense. Perks such as free parking and the bus shuttle service Onancock is offering to area businesses "shifts my buying power," he said.

LaMontagne said there are more possibilities for the ferry run, including setting up a personal shopping service and running a larger boat that is capable of carrying freight. Onancock might be able to bid on future delivery contracts with the U.S. Postal Service, UPS and FedEx.

There is also the chance that Virginia could tap into some of Tangier's historic crab market, he said, the overwhelming majority of which goes to Maryland.

But the immediate goal is to keep the passenger ferry running past September. Mark Crockett, the owner and captain of the Joyce Marie II, wholeheartedly agrees.

Like many on Tangier, Crockett spent his life working as a waterman. When he heard interest in resuming the ferry, he decided to take a chance.

"I'd never run passengers," he said, "and I'd always wanted to do it."

Business has been good so far, and he's hoping this career change will last.

"It's a lot easier than getting up at 2 or 3 in the morning," he said Thursday as he docked the ferry. And though 2007 was a great year on the water, he added, "even when it's good, it's a hard way of life."

Matthew Jones, (757) 446-2949, matthew.jones@pilotonline.com